Dockson is the Mistborn thieving crew’s organizer and bureaucrat, and he is Kelsier’s right-hand man. He is integral to their toppling of the Lord Ruler, and is the only non-Allomancer of the crew.
See below for a table of contents on Dockson’s character analysis:
Appearance
Dockson is described in the first Mistborn book as having black hair and a short half-beard that he has worn for over 20 years, ever since he was able to grow facial hair. He is also stout:
“The man, Dockson, was shorter than Kelsier, and he had a squarish face that seemed well suited to his moderately stocky build.” (1.30)
Personality
Dockson the Bureaucrat
Dockson is the logistical guy that helps make Kelier’s dreams become a reality in the first Mistborn novel.
“Kelsier’s part in the plan—the vision, the charismatic leadership—was finished. Now it was Dockson’s turn. He took Kelsier’s original strategy and modified it. He was careful to keep the chaos at a manageable level, rationing the best equipment to the men who seemed the most stable. He sent contingents to capture points of interest—food and water deposits—before general rioting could steal them. In short, he did what he always did: He made Kelsier’s dreams become reality (1.606)
He is the crew’s note keeper and their bureaucrat:
“He sat beside the table that was the room’s only piece of furniture, his most important ledgers, notes, and contracts organized into neat piles before him. He had been remarkably efficient at gathering every bit of paper that could have incriminated the crew or given further information about their plan” (1.548)
He is known as a skilled organizer and a quick planner. At one point, Sazed even calls him an organizational genius.
“While most of the others contributed some kind of Allomantic power to the crew, Dockson was valuable because of his simple ability to organize” (1.373)
His administrative work is extensive, and in The Well of Ascension, he seems to harbor some resentment towards the others, like Ham, that don’t share in his labors.
“Complain”, Dockson snapped. “Do you have any idea how much administrative labor it has taken to keep this city from falling upon itself? What have you done, Ham? You refused to take command of the army. All you do is drink and spar with your friends!” (2.581)
Dockson the Protector
Dockson is a worrier. He is more cautious and careful than the others in the crew. He shows this in how he protective he is of Vin.
For example, he gets angry with Kelsier when he thinks he took Vin with him to Kredik Shaw in the beginning of Mistborn.
“Now Vin is dying and the Lord Ruler is alerted to us. Wasn’t it enough that you got Mare killed trying to get into that room?” (1.261)
Later, when Vin returns from killing Shan Elariel in Mistborn, and she is all scratched up and bloody, he remarks, “honestly, you Allomancers…Don’t you ever worry about what you’re going to look like the day after you get into one of these fights?”
To this, Vin responds that she was just focused on staying alive. Kelsier interjects that Dockson was only complaining because he was worried about Vin. “That’s what he does,” he says (1.515).
Later, we see his cautious nature come out again when the crew is talking about rescuing Vin.
“The truth was that he couldn’t afford to spare men on a rescue operation at the moment. Kelsier would probably have gone after her, but Dockson wouldn’t let himself do something that brash. As he always said—someone on the crew needed to be realistic. The palace was not a place to attack without substantial preparation” (1.607).
Despite his cautious nature and how much he worries about things, Vin describes him as being “sturdy, calm, [and] stable” (2.51).
Background
Kareien
Dockson grew up as a plantation skaa. His plantation lord, Lord Devinshae, took a woman he loved, Kareien, to bed, and killed her. This was keeping in with the custom that nobleborn men must kill the skaa women they sleep with.
Dockson doesn’t talk about this much as he thinks it’s pointless. His reasoning is that he’s not the only skaa to lose a loved one to a lord’s passion. He tells Vin that his story isn’t all that original.
We learn that Kareien was from the same plantation as him. He tells Vin that he used to sneak between hovels at night to spend time with her, and the entire community played along and kept their secret from the taskmasters. He wasn’t supposed to be out after dark, and braved the mists for the first time for her. Some thought he was foolish, while others encouraged the romance, saying it inspired them.
He says that when Kareien’s corpse was returned the next morning for burial, something had died inside of him.
“Something just…died in the skaa hovels” (1.374).
He left the next evening, not knowing if there was a better life out there, but knowing he couldn’t stay with Kareien’s family and with Lord Devinshae watching them work. This leads to him meeting Kelsier.
Kelsier
Dockson and Kelsier had always hated the nobility growing up. When they were youths planning their first jobs, they had wanted to be rich, but they also wanted to hurt the nobility for taking Dockson’s love and Kelsier’s mother:
“Every coin they stole, every nobleman they left dead in an alleyway, was their way of waging war, of punishing them” (2.398).
Character Arc
Views of the Nobility
In Mistborn, we learn that Dockson’s sense of morality—or more specifically, his view of the nobles—is in line with that of Kelsier.
He tells Vin that the noblemen are horrible creatures, and asks her why she thinks he doesn’t complain when Kelsier kills them, and why he’s working with Kelsier to overthrow their government. He claims all the noble boys have slept with skaa women that they knew would be killed a short time later, at one point or another. He maintains that because of this, they can’t be redeemed. But he is not passionate about this like Kelsier is—he is merely resigned over it (1.376).
Later, we see his vitriol towards all noblemen when Ham asks how many noblemen are dead from the house war, and Dockson replies, “hundreds at least…all killed by their own greedy noble hands” (1.549)
However, we learn in The Well of Ascension that Dockson’s views of the nobility have changed because of Vin. In fact, his whole personality and demeanor have changed. Vin notes that perhaps he has changed the most out of anyone in the entire crew.
She had remembered what he was like before, recalling that he had always had an edge of humor, a sense of enjoyment in his role as the “straight” man and Kelsier’s complement. Despite being the same person, however, Vin can tell that he just felt different.
“The laughter was gone, the quiet enjoyment of the eccentricity in those around him. Without Keslier, Dockson had changed from temperate to…boring” (2.397)
We learn later on that guilt is consuming Dockson and giving him this grim, darker edge and hardened disposition. And this is because his view on the nobility—his very sense of morality—changed thanks to Vin.
“Kell always said that you gave the nobility too much credit, Vin. But you started to change even him there at the end. No, I don’t think that noble society needs to be completely destroyed. They aren’t all monsters as I once presumed.” (2.398)
However, in recognizing the truth that the nobility aren’t all the monsters that he had once presumed, that means that Dockson has to deal with the consequences of his actions; he has to confront the fact that his violence toward the nobility was, in fact, cruel and immoral if the nobility were truly innocent people.
“If I accept that Elend bears no guilt for what his people did to mine, then I must admit to being a monster for the things that I did to them” (2.399)
However, Vin doesn’t seem to think Dockson (nor Kelsier, for that matter) is an evil man for the violence he has committed against the nobility. She thinks that the oppression he dealt with changed him and hardened him, and perhaps even excuses his actions in a way:
“Kell and Doc weren’t evil men, but there was an edge of vengefulness to them. Oppression had changed them in ways that no amount of peace, reformation, or recompense could redeem” (2.399)
Despite Dockson’s concession that the nobility aren’t all the monsters he had once presumed, we see that he still holds onto his prejudices against them.
Before the Battle of Luthadel is about to take place, he suggests putting skaa commanders alongside the nobility’s commanders at each gate. He says:
“I don’t trust these commanders he’s [Clubs] put in charge. They don’t know anything about warfare—or even about survival. They’ve spent their lives ordering drinks and throwing parties” (2.658).
Sazed wonders why Dockson hates the nobility so, and we, too, are left to wonder how much he has truly grown in developing a worldview that isn’t all or nothing—i.e., that the nobility aren’t all bad people, that some of them can be good.
After all, if he can admit that not all of the nobility are monsters, then why can’t he trust them in a battle? Should he be so quick to assume that all of the noblemen don’t know anything about warfare?
Perhaps he is just being a cautious planner, and he still thinks that at least some of the nobility are redeemable, but his prejudice is still obviously present in the way he stereotypes them.
Leadership and Relationship with Kelsier
Throughout the first Mistborn novel, Dockson had seemed to truly enjoy his role as Kelsier’s right hand man and the logistical guy that helped Kelsier’s dreams become reality.
However, with Kelsier gone, he sets his sights on becoming the crew’s new leader.
He is jealous of Elend becoming the defacto leader of the crew due to his position as Luthadel’s king. Elend can tell that Dockson doesn’t like him by the way he looks at him:
“That’s why Dockson doesn’t like me. He hates noblemen; it’s obvious in the way that he talks, the way he acts…he doesn’t think I should be king. He thinks a skaa should be in my place—or even better, Kelsier. They all think that” (2.54)
However, his dislike for Elend is for more personal reasons than simply his view that all noblemen are bad. It’s revealed much later in the novel that he doesn’t like Elend because he didn’t get to be the one in charge after Kelsier died.
“Oh, get over yourself, Dox,” Ham snapped. “You’ve never been happy that you didn’t end up in charge when Kell died. That’s the real reason you never liked Elend, isn’t it?” (2.582).
Later on, in The Well of Ascension, as Dockson takes on more of a leadership role, we see that he harbors resentment towards Kelsier for having left the crew in this mess.
During the secret conference Sazed has gathered to discuss sending Vin away from Luthadel, Ham says to Dockson that there is no way he likes Lord Penrod any more than Elend. To which Dockson says,
“It’s not about who I like, Ham. It’s about seeing that this damn kingdom Kelsier threw at us remains standing. We’ve spent a year and a half cleaning up his mess. Do you want to see that work wasted?” (2.581).
He clearly has some pride with respect to the kingdom they’ve built; like the others, he’s not just in it for the thieving, but building a new world. In this way, he has changed and grown. However, he has a personal desire for leadership that ultimately leads to his downfall.
As the Battle of Luthadel approaches, Dockson lays out the battle plans and takes things over. Sazed notes his usurpation of leadership, thinking:
“No wonder he supported me in sending Elend and Vin away. With them gone, he’s gained undisputed control of Kelsier’s crew” (2.659).
Dockson’s battle planning has put him in harm’s way, and he heroically loses his life fighting the koloss. In his last moments, he thinks about Kelsier, and tragically, he loses his belief in him:
“He closed his eyes. You know, Kell, he thought. I almost started to believe that they were right, that you were watching over us. That you were some sort of god.” (2.702)
Had he survived this battle, he still would’ve never been the leader of the crew, and so his death is a kind of mercy in this way. However, his end is ultimately tragic in that he is one of the few characters to lose hope in the Mistborn series and never have the chance to gain it back.
