Sazed was a genius during The Lost Metal

[AleStaar he/him]

“Harmony puts people where they need to be, but then they must act. It is his way.” - VenDell

I think Sazed was a genius in TLM. Throughout the Era 2 books, we saw that Sazed has future sight that is extremely powerful but extremely subtle. He put drawings and plans for Elendel's city planning in the Words of Founding - where he accounted for water flow from the Basin, streets wide enough to accommodate for the future invention of cars, and accommodation for the future invention of trains. He wrote hints of the future discovery of railways, trains, electricity, and aviation. The story consistently mentions his knowledge of future tech while accounting for Southern Scadrial's achievements - the radio, the image projector, film, transportation or teleportation with the Metallic Arts, etc.

He knew about the Set's long-term plans in each book, so he foiled the respective plans and engineered their downfall with only a few pieces. I don't think he played the game perfectly. I think he genuinely blinded and didn't always know he needed Wayne. But I think he was so adaptable, good at seeing into the future, and so good at describing the future to the point he was virtually managing different universes. He succeeded in cultivating the sword that would overcome his pain and cripple the Set's military. 7 years ago he didn't foresee Wayne would be the hero, but this is an example of his adaptability. Over the next 7 years, and possibly with a vague sense spanning decades, he still cultivated Wayne into the perfect Slider who would detonate the Set's bomb. Marasi started out thinking criminal justice was only a numbers game, but Sazed cultivated her into the potential Governor of Elendel who knows the key to improving the world is to trust and understand others.

He implied he secretly mobilized the Ghostbloods, Tobal, Maraga, and Marsh to help Wax's group. We saw their roles in play. The Ghostbloods didn't even know Marasi was his agent, at least not to the extent of Wax and Wayne.

And while I think Sazed was genuine about not knowing Trell’s true nature for much of Era 2, I think the length of his ignorance is questionable as The Lost Metal unfolded. As a mystery plot, part of The Lost Metal’s structure was seeing the Set’s timeline unfold. In the process, you see the Set was undergoing various activities long before Sazed was blinded and Set members were pierced with trillium. Sazed had much time to track the plans and possible futures of Miles, Edwarn, Gave, Telsin, and everything going on in Bilming. Especially when you consider that Preservation's power hears thoughts, granting a loophole around “can’t read metal” and "can't see through areas surrounded by metal."

Even when blinded, we saw that Sazed was either tracking or planning for Granks' operations in that cavern, and for Wayne and Marasi interfering in Granks’ operations and getting his trellium spike. The trellium spike would then goad Wax into undergoing the experiment that would create the trellium earring, atium dust, and lerasium dust.

I know someone will bring up what Leras/Preservation did in the trilogy, so I'll talk about it. Yes, Preservation's plan was long-spanning, incredible, and brilliant. He knew he needed Vin, Elend, Sazed, and many other pieces. And as far as we can tell, he knew why he needed them. But I think we're overlooking one reason it was so great - Ruin was terrible at looking into the future. He manipulated many pieces. But Preservation foresaw purposes that Ruin couldn't foresee, placed tools and clues far in advance, and cultivated greater plans for Ruin's pawns. Ruin's only resources for most of history were text alteration, whispers, Mist alteration, and Hemalurgic spikes. Ruin either underestimated certain paths (Elend sacrificing himself to get Vin to murder-kill), or straight up couldn't see many paths. Ruin couldn't see far into the length of Preservation's tree or see into its wide branches. 

Preservation VS Ruin was a Batman Gambit that took place over thousands of years, orchestrated by a chess grandmaster who could see the future VS a crafty grandmaster with a tiny bit of future sight. But even then, Preservation mentioned how difficult and unlikely it was to arrange his successor, the atium Mistings, and the Hero of Ages within the infinite web of futures.

Sazed VS Autonomy in TLM was a future sight war between an amputated chess rookie playing with a blindfold for a year whose main source of knowledge is an inherited guidebook of chess moves VS an opponent with ages of experience playing chess who is extremely good at seeing the future. And, just maybe, the chess rookie had some insight into the opponent due to the guidebook including their move. Even then, Sazed shattered Autonomy's decades of planning, armies, Hemalurgic knowledge, and industry through a series of precise strikes set into motion prior.

Edited October 26, 2024 by Ale the Metallic Conjurer

[StanLemon]

I have a feeling we are going to see the culmination of Sazed's plans in Era 3. Era 2 was unplanned and much of TLM seemed to be setup for Era 3. There does seem to be too much working in Sazed’s favor for it not to be him knocking over a few dominos