Elend Fights the Koloss in the Village

This chapter gets my next award for favorite chapters in this book. (I think this is number four.)

The next few Elend chapters run him through the ringer—and yet at the same time let him shine. He’s alone, forced to work through his problems without Vin, Tindwyl, or the others to support him. It’s time for him to decide who he really is and what he really wants.

This chapter begins that. Elend’s frustration at not being able to protect his people finally bursts from him, and his passion drives him to do as Vin did in book two. Yet there is far less beauty to his attack than there was to hers. Elend is powerful, but with Allomancy he also has to be blunt.

I love the imagery of this scene in the village, Elend fighting by the firelight of burning buildings, ash and mist in the air, koloss dying by the dozens. It’s his first real chance to be a Mistborn, in my opinion, and he is kind of surprised by what it does to him.

He’s not finished working through his need to protect the people of his empire. In a way, he’s just beginning down the path of what he needs to work out. However, this is a pivotal moment, where he finally acknowledges what it is that has been bothering him so much. He doesn’t just fear that he’s becoming like the Lord Ruler—he fears that he’s becoming like the Lord Ruler but doing a much poorer job than his predecessor ever did.