If Mistborn had flashback as Stormlight Archive

[Rashekin]

I don't know if it has already been discussed here but, by rereading Mistborn and Stormlight simultaneously, I started to think of a hypothetical structure of Mistborn Era I with flashbacks.

In Stormlight, each book has a POV character for the flashbacks (Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar, Venli / Eshonai, Szeth in the fifth book), so if Mistborn had had them I think they could be like this:

1. The Final Empire: Definitely Kelsier. Vin is undoubtedly the protagonist, but Kell's presence is the other big part of the book. The first flashback could be the murder of his mother, while the next ones could be her relationship with Mare; how he became Luthadel's biggest thief, then the botched robbery at Kredik Shaw; the Pits of Hathsin, the death of Mare and Kelsier breaking as Mistborn; and as a final flashback, the story we know as The Eleventh Metal.

2. The Well of Ascension: Here these could be from Sazed (if they were in the third book, it would be indirectly spoiler, I think). He has a very interesting past, with which we could see Terris, with the Synod and the social structure of him; We could see Tindwyl as a young, and why Terris society considered Sazed a rebel, and later the time when he met Mare and Kelsier, and he started working in the underworld of Luthadel.

3. The Hero of Ages: Here these would definitely be Vin's. We could see how her mother murdered her sister; his years with Reen from city to city, and how abusive he was; We could also see how Reen left her, and I really don't know what else it could be, because we don't know much more about Vin's past, and also she was very young in the first book.

I haven't thought about what it would be like if Mistborn had interludes because there really isn't much talk about the Final Empire other than Luthadel and the other cities we saw in era I. But hey, tell me what you think about this topic!

Edited February 20, 2021 by Rashekin

[jamesbondsmith]

I see what you're getting at, but I feel like Vin and Sazed could be swapped. Vin is dealing with her newfound fame/infamy and generally seems to have more of an arc than Sazed in WOA, so we could have seen her relatively powerless youth mixed with her current 'I'm not the messiah' mentality. In HOA Sazed is utterly crushed and doubting his life as a Keeper and specifically his focus on religions, so a look at his training as a keeper would be a nice contrast to his current crisis of faith.

[aneonfoxtribute]

I also don't think it works at all because knowing Vin's backstory is so important to her character and why she is the way she is in book 1

[Cole]

I really like this concept. I think some combination of Kelsier, Vin, and Sazed flashbacks would definitely work, and maybe even some random flashbacks of the rest of the crew. From what I remember we really don't get a lot about the past lives of Ham, Breeze, Clubs, and Marsh. I think it would really be interesting to see how these other characters developed and uncover the questions that we have about what they did before joining the crew

[The One Ring]

I've wondered about the same thing and can see where you're coming from. But after thinking about it for a while, I don't think it would work very well because: Flashbacks take up far more screen time than simply saying "Oh, someone murdered my mother when I was young." And it can sometimes be very annoying to impatient readers like me. One of the reasons Stormlight still have flashbacks is because there isn't a way for Kaladin, Shallan, Dalinar to casually mention their backstory and we likely wouldn't get to know it in time. But that's not the case with Vin or Kelsier. That being said, I do think a bit of Sazed flashbacks can work really well. We didn't get to know much about him or Terris and his flashbacks could add an interesting flavor to the story.