Hero of Ages Chapter 1

[Pygmalion]

Why does Pygmallion sound familiar?

My comment or my username?

[Miyabi]

Why does Pygmallion sound familiar?

My comment or my username?

Username

Edit: AHHH! My green is broken!

[Qarlin]

Pygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw. My Fair Lady is based on that play. Henry Higgins, Eliza Doolittle and all that.

[Reaves]

1. I like to think of it from Brandon's perspective: why, if it's the third book of the trilogy with many already established characters, would Brandon ever introduce one of the main characters and then later, somehow not have him actually be the main character? It's unnecessarily convoluted from a storytelling perspective.

2. Though... I was caught off-guard because of the facial hair, but there are too many things that point to him being Elend than him not being Elend. White cape, just like from MB2, same hair style from MB2, and most of all, he essentially completes the story arc from MB2 about him becoming king. He is the emperor now, and now he acts like it.

3.The improvement is extraordinary. Elend, I think, has always been my favorite character (series-wise, at least. Kelsier was the favorite for MB1), but now he is even better than I could have imagined. He's a powerful leader, the only thing that has really happened to him is that he's grown. The world is falling into chaos, and he is doing what he has to do to keep it alive. I like to think of it from the perspective of his last line in MB2, where he says, "We are going to survive." Obviously, he is doing it this way--without that pesky "ideals" business--to survive. Already, before we even get into his viewpoint, I can see what Elend's internal conflicts will be in the book: he is going to struggle with trying to keep his ideals (or restore them) in the face of unimaginable chaos.

This is Elend, I am positive of it. He's just stronger now.

4. Remember, though, that Statlin City is probably more like one of the Lord Ruler's storehouses than the hidden atium supply. Recall from the preview chapter in the second edition paperback of MB1 (the one from Spook's viewpoint) that Elend was going after cities that had these storehouses.

5. In fact, I believe I just figured out why Vin isn't with Elend: she is commanding the koloss army to conquer places with the storehouses. As to why Elend cannot control koloss, I do not have a sufficient answer for you.

Chaos, something in your most recent post made me cackle with glee. Just wait until you read the book.

Soo...what could it be...

1. Of course Ookla could be laughing at the fact that Vin is no longer the main character but i don't think that is it. First of all it isn't funny, and second of all for the reasons Chaos stated.
2. Elend could be lying about being emperor now...but i do not think that is it...
3. Kelsier lives! yeah thats all i can think of.
4. perhaps the atium is spread among various storehouses? nah i don't think that would make Ookla laugh.
5. Vin is controlling the koloss army! The entire attack is a deliberate farce; Elend charges into battle and Vin commands the koloss to flee before him in terror!! Or alternatively the fight a fiercely contested battle and Vin "arrives" at the last minute to control the koloss and save the day.

[Miyabi]

Pygmalion is a play by George Bernard Shaw. My Fair Lady is based on that play. Henry Higgins, Eliza Doolittle and all that.

Ahhh yes of course.  Now I feel dumb.  There goes three years of drama out the window. ha ha.  Thank you.

[darxbane]

Vin is controlling the koloss army! The entire attack is a deliberate farce; Elend charges into battle and Vin commands the koloss to flee before him in terror!! Or alternatively the fight a fiercely contested battle and Vin "arrives" at the last minute to control the koloss and save the day.

Ooh, I like that!  What better way to sway people to your cause than to lead them to "victory" against 10,000 Koloss!  Now Elend charging into battle like a fool makes sense.  It also explains why he would use a horse to rush ahead of the army instead of pewter dragging.  It's all a show.  Of course, if this isn't true I will look silly, but so be it.

[Pygmalion]

^ Wow, that is a brilliant thought there... hadn't considered that...

[Inkthinker]

I think some of you guys might be over thinking it. Elend has grown up and matured, and this chapter shows it. We know there were more bands of random, raging koloss wandering the Final Empire than just those from the army that hit Luthadel, and it makes sense that one of the first things Elend & Co. would do is to stop them, and build up his own side to defend his people from the other Dominances and the forces of Ruin.

As for him being a tyrant, he would come to that conclusion after his earlier attempts at a more democratic government nearly ended in disaster. Democracy (as has been well illustrated on our own world) does not work well in a war zone. For the good of others, Elend will be a tyrant. I just hope he doesn't grow to like it.

If this is just a ploy to trick people into following him by suddenly "stilling" the koloss, I think that would be out of character for Elend. I have faith that, inside, he's still an idealist. He's just an idealist that's had a heavy dose of harsh realism pounded in, now.

And facial hair, depending on how he wears it, can look tres cool.

[darxbane]

My one issue with that is that Elend could not beat 10,00 Koloss with 2,000 untrained untested farmers, Mistborn or not, and he certainly wouldn't rush them out in the open.  If he is willing to become a tyrant, even temporarily, then why is he not willing to trick people into following him by staging a glorious victory over a terrible enemy? 

[VegasDev]

While it might make an interesting discussion, I give Elend going to those lengths to trick people into supporting him a plausibility rating of nill.

Koloss are much stronger than skaa, so why would he allow some to be killed just to bring a handfull of skaa aboard when he already has control over a much larger and powerfull force of Koloss? Why would he risk alienating the skaa which would find out at some point that it was a ruse? They would abandon him as soon as they find out.

He has nothing to gain by marching a little over 1,000 trained skaa (+ 1,000 farmers) against 10,000 Koloss unless he just wants to get them out there to show them that he has control over the Koloss, in which case he could have brought a single one and have it do cartwheels, stand on it's head, etc.

If it is Elend, he does not have control of the Koloss and is leading skaa into a quick strike and retreat while the Koloss least expect it.

[Andrew the Great]

Just read the chapter...AWESOME.

My first thought about the Koloss army actually was that Vin was controlling it. And I'm personally pretty sure that it really is Elend. I also though it might be Statlin City, just renamed, but I'm not so sure now. Basically, I'm really looking forward to HoA. And, as Chaos said, I will be at the bookstore at opening on the 14th. 

And that chapter rocked. That's all there is to it.

[Miyabi]

If this is just a ploy to trick people into following him by suddenly "stilling" the koloss, I think that would be out of character for Elend. I have faith that, inside, he's still an idealist. He's just an idealist that's had a heavy dose of harsh realism pounded in, now.

And facial hair, depending on how he wears it, can look tres cool.

Yeah, I like your thoughts here better than most.  I just don't want to give my old Elend up. ha ha.  xP I loved him so much.

Also 95% of facial hair is gross and the way it's described makes me think of like a full beard which is icky.  My boyfriend has a little soul patch and that looks OK and is tolerable, but most facial hair is just. . . ew. ha ha.

[Andrew the Great]

Remember that Elend has been in a chaotic war zone for a year, fighting a superpowered near-omniscient being. That would change you.

And what's with the facial hair obsession?

[Inkthinker]

My one issue with that is that Elend could not beat 10,00 Koloss with 2,000 untrained untested farmers, Mistborn or not, and he certainly wouldn't rush them out in the open.  If he is willing to become a tyrant, even temporarily, then why is he not willing to trick people into following him by staging a glorious victory over a terrible enemy? 

But they're not "untested"... Fatren tells Elend that they've been in battles before, when various rogue groups tried to take over the city from the skaa. They're not trained soldiers on the same level as a standing army, but neither are they a bunch of farmers who don't know which end of the sword to hold.

Two additional points: Elend's attack has the advantage of surprise... the koloss are tired from marching and in the middle of setting camp, and I don't think that koloss are particularly used to being charged at all. And Elend has stated that he has an army on the way... they don't need to defeat 10,000 koloss, they just need to route them, unnerve them, trim them down and freak them out a bit until Vin and the rest of his backup arrives.

I don't expect anyone except Vin has the power to still the koloss. We haven't really been given an indication of how powerful a Mistborn Elend really is, and even Vin was barely able to push hard enough for a stilling. But just the same, Elend is (presumably) well-charged and equipped himself, and more than capable of putting a hurt on even an army of koloss.

[Czanos]

I don't think Vin's with his other two armies. I'd bet she's out with her own two armies. After all, by the end of Well of Ascension, they had the koloss army, Straff's army, Cett's army, and Luthadel's army. I'd guess she either has two of those armies or just the koloss one. (And Luthadel army is manning the fort.) With each force having two armies and a mistborn, they're both powerful forces to be reckoned with, and probably both well-capable of taking out random bands of koloss. (This "random band" just happening to be huge-ish.)

The main reason I don't think Vin's with this group is that she could have either kept up with Elend or gotten there faster.  I could believe that Elend didn't want to pewter drag to the city because he didn't want to wear himself out, and that he didn't want to try one of Vin's improvisational spikeways because he doesn't feel that confident with steel and iron yet, but Vin could probably do either and still fight at the end. Especially if she has duralumin and brass.

Although, I think the reason Elend/Vin doesn't super-soothe them is because there's just too many. Breeze says that at best he can only affect a few hundred people at once, and while it'd be possible to hold that many under your control, the chances are too great that they'd kill you while your doing it. I think Elend wants to use this small army to distract the koloss while he gets as many as he can.