This is basically an apology post to Dockson
With every passing re-read of The Well of Ascension, I realize how under the radar Dockson's transformation passed in the story and in my perception. Ham, Breeze, Clubs, Spook and Sazed have all accepted Elend as a friend, but Dox is always aloof, always keeping him at arm's length; we get to see the story from Elend's perspective, not Dox's; and there's the argument between Ham and Dox thrown in later too; all things combined, I at least had dismissed Dox as boring and mostly non-contributing to the crew anymore (except with the bureaucracy work). He didn't add anything to the crew's morale, which is possibly more important than the actual work when you're The Survivor's Crew, taking on one impossible task after the other.
But Dox was the one who'd been closest to Kelsier. Everyone mourned his death, but everyone moved on, too. Dox never did. It had been their dream to topple the nobility, and now there's a nobleman at the head of the new government, and Dox knows Elend is a good man, but can't accept it, because then he and Kell would be the monsters, and then there's Kell standing beside Elend's shoulder and shaking his head at Dox while the rest of Kell's crew treat Elend as a longtime friend.
No, it wasn't easy being Dox in the year after The Collapse.
