Ham Says Not to Attack

And, what is this? A climax for Ham?

Hammond lovers, your faith has paid off. This is the best I could give him, but it seems to me like it works. All through the series, I’ve had him question and debate, and he rarely comes to any conclusions on moral issues.

But, here, he gives Elend advice at the exact right moment. And it’s the right advice. Now, by saying that, I don’t mean to say that attacking the city was the wrong thing to do. It was just the wrong thing for Elend to do.

He’s a protector, not a conqueror. Taking a city for its own good would have destroyed him, as it violates his basic life principles. He should have turned around as he did, and karma—or, well, the author—rewards him for it.

The Koloss Attack Anyway

That’s not to say that there aren’t some very daunting things happening in this chapter. Ruin controls the koloss, and always has. Every time that Vin and company took control of them, Ruin allowed it. He didn’t always like losing Inquisitors to the fights, and sometimes would have preferred that the battles went differently. However, when it came down to either having the koloss under his direct control, or having them under Vin and Elend’s control, he chose the latter. Because it set him up for a time like this, when he could turn their own army against them.

Drawing upon the Mists

Vin draws upon the mists here for the second time. I kind of wish I’d been able to make her do it in the second book somewhere, but I decided to back off on that plot in book two. The thing is, Vin drawing upon the mists is kind of deus ex machina, and I didn’t want to make the entire series about that. It’s a mystery to be explained, true, and was worked into the magic system from the beginning. But I can’t deny that it feels like it comes out of nowhere.

So, having her use her ability to draw upon the mists here was an attempt to have that happen sometime other than a major climax moment, reminding the reader of what happened back in book one so we can begin to delve into what was happening and why.