In The Well of Ascension, the main characters and their companions face the burdens of leadership (especially leadership imposed on them suddenly), and the novel reveals how difficult it can be to combine ethical leadership with the exigencies of politics. Kelsier secretly arranged for his crew to take on positions of leadership in a world that he envisioned would be run by the skaa rather than the mostly corrupt noblemen. None of the crew members have prior experience leading a nation, but Kelsier’s final wishes in The Final Empire made clear for them the skills he saw as essential to leading the people amid a power vacuum. The crew members all face the difficulties of leadership with varying levels of willingness and hope, and by the time of Well of Ascension, the pressures of leadership during a crisis are wearing them down.

Vin observes that the crew misses Kelsier not only as a friend but also as a skilled leader. Elend, the man who became king after the Lord Ruler’s death, believes that the crew compares him unfavorably to Kelsier. Elend’s struggles with leadership take on a primary role in the novel as he becomes a

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