The Minute Differences Between Soothing and Rioting

[Koloss17 She/They]

While I was making today’s random twinborn combination, I realized that I haven’t really explored the difference between rioting and soothing, and kind of equated them as different methods of getting the same effect. But that isn’t really true, is it? I mean…is it?

 

Say you want to sneak past guards that are guarding a very important keepsake of a noble. Soothing away their alertness or their sense of fervor might get them to be less ready to stop you if you were to sneak past them. Rioting their sense of tiredness would also do a similar thing, and get pretty much the same result. But would one be more effective than the other? Is there a scenario where one would work where the other would fail? I’m nearly certain there is, yet I can’t quite find a clear scenario where one is clearly better than the other. 
 

I suppose if you’re manipulating someone that has extreme emotions already (if they’re really angry or scared, for example), then soothing would be the way to go. But would rioting still do the trick? Well, at what point is calmness not another emotion you can riot, as it is just the more neutral variant of being in fight or flight mode?

[alder24]

7 minutes ago, Koloss17 said:

While I was making today’s random twinborn combination, I realized that I haven’t really explored the difference between rioting and soothing, and kind of equated them as different methods of getting the same effect. But that isn’t really true, is it? I mean…is it?

 

Say you want to sneak past guards that are guarding a very important keepsake of a noble. Soothing away their alertness or their sense of fervor might get them to be less ready to stop you if you were to sneak past them. Rioting their sense of tiredness would also do a similar thing, and get pretty much the same result. But would one be more effective than the other? Is there a scenario where one would work where the other would fail? I’m nearly certain there is, yet I can’t quite find a clear scenario where one is clearly better than the other. 
 

I suppose if you’re manipulating someone that has extreme emotions already (if they’re really angry or scared, for example), then soothing would be the way to go. But would rioting still do the trick? Well, at what point is calmness not another emotion you can riot, as it is just the more neutral variant of being in fight or flight mode?

You can't create emotions, you can't soothe or riot emotions that a person doesn't feel. If you have freshly changed guards, full of energy, rioting tiredness won't work, because they don't feel tired yet. It really depends on the situation, because at some point rioting and soothing won't work.

Like Vin in HoA ch 44 did, when sneaking into a Fadrex cave - first she created a situation for guards to  feel emotions, then she manipulated those emotions.

Quote

She closed her eyes, listening carefully. She could hear both groups of soldiers, but there seemed to be something else. Other groups in the distance. Vin picked one of these and begin to Pull with a powerful Riot of emotions. Soothing and Rioting weren't blocked by stone or steel—during the days of the Final Empire, the Lord Ruler had set up Soothers in various sections of the skaa slums, letting them Soothe away the emotions of everyone nearby, affecting hundreds, even thousands, of people at once.
She waited. Nothing happened. She was trying to Riot the men's sense of anger and irritability. However, she didn't even know if she was Pulling in the right direction. In addition, Rioting and Soothing weren't as precise as Pushing steel. Breeze always explained that the emotional makeup of a person was a complex jumble of thoughts, instincts, and feelings.An Allomancer couldn't control minds or actions. He could only nudge.
Unless . . .
Taking a deep breath, Vin extinguished all of her metals. Then, she burned duralumin and zinc, and Pulled in the direction of the distant guards, hitting them with a powerfully enhanced burst of emotional Allomancy.
Immediately, a curse echoed through the hallway. Vin cringed. Fortunately, the noise wasn't directed at her. The guards in the corridor perked up, and the argument in the distance grew louder, more fervent. Vin didn't need to burn tin to hear when the scuffle broke out, men yelling at each other.
The guards to the left rushed away, moving to find out what the source of the disturbance was. The ones to her right left two men behind, however, and so Vin drank a vial of metal, then Rioted their emotions, enhancing their senses of curiosity to the point of breaking. The two men left, rushing after their companions, and Vin scurried down the corridor.

 

[Underwater_Worldhopper he/him]

1 hour ago, alder24 said:

You can't create emotions, you can't soothe or riot emotions that a person doesn't feel. If you have freshly changed guards, full of energy, rioting tiredness won't work, because they don't feel tired yet. It really depends on the situation, because at some point rioting and soothing won't work.

Like Vin in HoA ch 44 did, when sneaking into a Fadrex cave - first she created a situation for guards to  feel emotions, then she manipulated those emotions.

I have to disagree a little here. I think you can Riot emotions that aren't there originally (soothing them is beyond useless since they're already not there). Take your example of energetic guards, you could Riot their sense of tiredness, but it just wouldn't be effective, since they're fresh. I think the main reason this misconception happens I because our primary introduction to Emotional Allomancy is Breeze, and he's a Soother, who therefore can't create emotions that aren't there. We see Allrianne Riot a group of bandits' chivalry, which I very much doubt existed before she Rioted them, and in your own example of Vin, she Riots a group of guards' sense of anger and irritability, which, when considering they were sitting around doing nothing, again probably didn't exist earlier, so either Vin got very lucky and just happened to pick a group of guards who were irritable, or she Rioted emotions into existence.

In general, I would say Soothing and Rioting are equally effective since you can kind of achieve the same thing either way. To make a guard angry, Riot his anger, or Soothe everything but his anger. In the same vein, To make a guard not angry, Soothe his anger, or Riot everything but his anger. The only real difference is Rioting's inability to actually remove an emotion, and Soothing's inability to create one.

The most a Rioter can do to calm someone who's angry is Riot all their emotions other than anger plus Rioting calmness.

The most a Soother can do to make someone who's calm angry is Soothe everything but their anger, irritability, etc.

tl;dr

They're pretty much equally matched, but Rioters can't efficiently calm someone down, and Soothers can't efficiently rile someone up. In both situations, they could manage by being creative with the emotions they can affect, but it would be much easier to just have the other power in some circumstances. A Soother could calm someone down effortlessly, and a Rioter could rile someone up equally easily, but vice versa, they have to use roundabout methods.

Edited May 1, 2023 by Underwater_Worldhopper

[mip67]

I believe breeze mentioned that that they really were the same thing except for both extremes, rather than rioting someone's tiredness, you could soothe away everything until tiredness was the dominant emotion. Complete emotionlessness with zinc and the maximum amount of emotion with brass are not possible, but otherwise they can always achieve the same effects.

[Trusk'our he/him]

3 hours ago, Underwater_Worldhopper said:

I have to disagree a little here. I think you can Riot emotions that aren't there originally (soothing them is beyond useless since they're already not there). Take your example of energetic guards, you could Riot their sense of tiredness, but it just wouldn't be effective, since they're fresh. I think the main reason this misconception happens I because our primary introduction to Emotional Allomancy is Breeze, and he's a Soother, who therefore can't create emotions that aren't there. We see Allrianne Riot a group of bandits' chivalry, which I very much doubt existed before she Rioted them, and in your own example of Vin, she Riots a group of guards' sense of anger and irritability, which, when considering they were sitting around doing nothing, again probably didn't exist earlier, so either Vin got very lucky and just happened to pick a group of guards who were irritable, or she Rioted emotions into existence.

I agree with this. I don't think that Emotional Allomancy is strictly limited to augmenting or smothering emotions that already existed in the target.

A Soother or Rioter who has an idea of what their target is feeling will be better able to judge how strongly to push or pull on their emotions, however.