Who do you think will die on the Next Book?

[Matias]

We know is the end of the first era, so i imagine there will be some important death's on it.

I would say Dalinar and Sigzil

[Mat]

Plot wise an Adolin death makes the most sense, but I just don't think Brandon will kill Adolin. 

Dalinar I agree with- I'm thinking the contest will probably end in a stalemate, or a light loss of some kind, in a way that pushes off their impending doom. I'd be surprised if they outright won, to be honest.

I think Kaladin will die in heroic self-sacrifice. I don't see him having much to offer in the second half; I suppose he could be a Vasher figure but I think it's more likely he'll just die.

I could see some Bridge Four people dying, but I dunno how you singled out Sig. Rock and Lopen I would say won't die though. I don't think Shallan will die either, and Jasnah and Renarin (and Lift) are all practically guaranteed to survive because of their flashback books.

So yeah, I guess Dalinar/Kaladin as far as main character deaths is my prediction.

[+Invocation]

Dalinar is dead meat. If he makes it out of this book whole and remaining in the Physical Realm, I will grind up a printout of this comment and drink it like a smoothie. Metaphorically and potentially literally.
I don't think Kaladin dies, but I do think he ends up not physically whole by the end of everything, just because it seems like things are going to go to Braize in a basket in Shinovar. On a similar note, I'd be vaguely surprised if Szeth makes it through whole.

[Frustration]

Not one until the very end, and I mean the verry end, maybe 100 or so pages to go

[Zoey]

10 hours ago, Matrim's Dice said:

Plot wise an Adolin death makes the most sense, but I just don't think Brandon will kill Adolin. 

Dalinar I agree with- I'm thinking the contest will probably end in a stalemate, or a light loss of some kind, in a way that pushes off their impending doom. I'd be surprised if they outright won, to be honest.

I think Kaladin will die in heroic self-sacrifice. I don't see him having much to offer in the second half; I suppose he could be a Vasher figure but I think it's more likely he'll just die.

I could see some Bridge Four people dying, but I dunno how you singled out Sig. Rock and Lopen I would say won't die though. I don't think Shallan will die either, and Jasnah and Renarin (and Lift) are all practically guaranteed to survive because of their flashback books.

So yeah, I guess Dalinar/Kaladin as far as main character deaths is my prediction.

I kinda think that Rock is already dead. He broke a law of his people, and left to go there, saying goodbye, and when Drehy and Skar returned, they said that he would never be coming back. I saw that as pretty heavily implying he might have been executed. 

[LewsTherinTelescope]

13 hours ago, Matrim's Dice said:

I think Kaladin will die in heroic self-sacrifice. I don't see him having much to offer in the second half; I suppose he could be a Vasher figure but I think it's more likely he'll just die.

To me, this would undo essentially the entirety of his character arc, imo. His two greatest struggles have been his sometimes-suicidal depression and him giving too much of himself trying to save people, and I feel like that would undo his entire thing with learning to handle those more healthily.

[Flying]

What do you mean? None of them are going to die. Nope. It's going to be all happy and all my favorite characters will survive 

I may or may not be in denial

But in all seriousness, I feel like it's going to be Dalinar. After his character arc in Oathbringer, and the high stakes of the contest, I just can't see him making it out alive. I have this feeling that it's going to happen. However, I don't think Kaladin will die. Maybe he'll be injured or something, but him dying right after all the stuff he went through in RoW would be disappointing.

Edited September 7, 2021 by Flying

[NameIess]

I think that the majority of bridge 4 is going to die. If I had to guess which specific ones die and survive, then Lopen would be at the top of the dead list, and below him would be Huio, followed by everyone else besides Sigzil and Renarin, who I think are almost guaranteed to survive.

Next on the list is Dalinar. I agree with everyone else here; Dalinar is probably going to die in this next book. Now, he's obviously going to become a cognitive shadow, but he's still going to die. Navani is almost certainly going to survive, although I could see her and the rest of the monarchs dying if Brandon's going to go for a Roshar corruption arc. Jasnah's going to live unless all the monarchs die, I see no reason for her to die otherwise.

Kaladin's going to live. It would just feel so weird for him to die, considering the unfinished arcs that he still has. Syl will probably survive, but her survival isn't as sure as Kaladin's. Moash is probably not going to be in this book much, if he is, then he'll either be redeemed or die.

Szeth is a wildcard. I don't know if he'll live or die, but I do think that Azure is going to come back into play, maybe ending up with Nightblood.

A lot of fused will probably die, as will a lot of spren.

Adolin and Shallan are probably okay for now. They're in Shadesmar, and Shallan vs. the ghostbloods will probably be saved for the back half, and Adolin has an unresolved arc with Maya.

[Weltall]

On the main topic of discussion, Lift and Jasnah at least have some form of Plot Armor for Book 5 because Brandon has specifically mentioned letting us see the former when she's grown up (ergo she must survive the timeskip) and Jasnah might be the major character of the back half (which would be very hard if she's dead the whole time). You can make a dead person work as a focus character for one book but it's awfully hard to make them a major character for five if it's entirely posthumous. I have other characters I think are pretty safe for narrative reasons (Kaladin, Shallan and probably Szeth but that might change) but those don't have Word of Brandon to back it up.

Dalinar is the major character I see as most likely to have something happen to in the next book, though whether he'd end up dead-dead or just no longer on speaking terms with the Physical Realm is a whole separate question. I'd lean towards the latter especially since we already know that Rayse wants him as a Cognitive Shadow. Adolin's a tossup for me because while his Prime counterpart died I don't think that makes a huge difference to his canon self (his role has changed massively) but he also doesn't have quite the same degree of plot threads swirling around him which seem like they'd be impossible to resolve in a single book.

 

8 hours ago, Zoey said:

I kinda think that Rock is already dead. He broke a law of his people, and left to go there, saying goodbye, and when Drehy and Skar returned, they said that he would never be coming back. I saw that as pretty heavily implying he might have been executed. 

Kaladin's internal monologue states that "Skar and Drehy had relayed the news after returning to the Shattered Plains, it seemed Kaladin wouldn’t be seeing Rock again.". At no point does Kaladin think that Rock is dead and considering the circumstances (it's at Teft's funeral) if he were dead there's little reason why Kaladin wouldn't have reflected on that in the moment.

An alternative possibility is that he won't be coming back because he's accepted a much more important responsibility that's keeping him away. Consider: According to Rock, the first nuatoma to obtain a Shardblade would become king of all the Unkalaki. Rock is very strongly implied to be the legitimate nuatoma of his peak, because the relatives of the current nuatoma serve them (which Rock was doing, ergo the nuatoma was related to him) and all of Rock's older siblings are dead. When Tuaka hears that lats bit, she starts to say that Rock is now- and then he cuts her off. The rather obvious interpretation is that she was about to say that now he is nuatoma. Rock is entitled by custom to Amaram's Shards by virtue of killing him at the end of Oathbringer and that included two Shardblades.

Ergo, at the time he killed Amaram and was entitled to his Shardblades, he was most likely a nuatoma, ergo he is the first person with a claim on the position of king in many years. He's not coming back not because he's dead but because something happening offscreen caused him to accept this position rather than hide from it.

Edited September 7, 2021 by Weltall

[ScadrianTank]

Vasher, Kaladin, and Szeth. 

[teknopathetic]

Navani dies to save either Dalinar or Jasnah. The sibling may die too. 

 

Edited September 8, 2021 by teknopathetic

[CosmicSieve]

Stormfather is on my list of Most Likely To Die. Since the power to kill spren now exists, I expect to see it used to spectacular effect. 

[Elegy]

Brandon doesn't like to kill non-antagonist characters, so I believe that most of them (including the main three) will make it.

Non-antagonists that I can see dying in book 5 are Szeth, Kalak, possibly the Stormfather (since the question what would happen if he died was explicitly raised by the honorspren).

Renarin, Jasnah and Lift are confirmed to survive.

[Dreamwa1ker]

Does becoming a cognitive shadow or ascending count as "die"?

"Zahel" might if his arc with "Azure" happens. In some way he finds his purpose and something miraculous would happen in that moment. 

I'm also gonna say the Stormfather, there is a lot of foreshadowing I think and now we have a way to kill spren.

Moash.

Szeth, I think this will finish his arc.

If Brandon wants a gut-punch, I could see Lopen going out sacrificing himself, with a trademark smile/wink/joke at the same time.

Kaladin I think might become a cognitive shadow - there's got to be a reason he had the Zahel conversation in RoW. And I note how he lines up with the order of the Herald that Moash took out. If there's a temporary Oathpact refresh to cover the gap between front and back 5, Kaladin would be the one to step into Jezrien's place. Either that or "son of Tanavast" picks up Honor.

Crempost: Gavilar dies in the prologue again. Though maybe he becomes a cognitive shadow this time ;-)

[TypicalShard]

On 9/9/2021 at 0:41 AM, CosmicSieve said:

Stormfather is on my list of Most Likely To Die. Since the power to kill spren now exists, I expect to see it used to spectacular effect. 

I don't believe that is possible as the amount of anti-stormlight that would require would be monstrous. I can see him dying in a way once Dalinar falls but I don't think he'll die to anti-stormlight. 

[WandererNearby]

Quote

Crempost: Gavilar dies in the prologue again. Though maybe he becomes a cognitive shadow this time ;-)

@Dreamwa1ker take my storming upvote.

[Shinwarrior]

I'm going to say Shallan kills off another of her personalities. Radiant, that's you. 

I think another Herald will die, either Nale or Ishar. 

I'm surprised that everybody thinks Dalinar will die, because I thought I was going on a limb to say either he or Adolin loses the contest of champions and Kaladin and Szeth have to put him down like a rabbid dog. Not completely sold on this one but it could happen. 

Lastly, and the one I'm most afraid of is Syl dying as well. I got some weird feelings when she forgot the words to the fourth oath and hope it didn't mean anything dramatic in the future. 

[Weltall]

On 9/9/2021 at 10:13 AM, Dreamwa1ker said:

Does becoming a cognitive shadow or ascending count as "die"?

Based on a comment by Brandon on how Elantrians aren't Cognitive Shadows because they didn't 'die' first, you could argue that becoming one counts as death, but that gets into the question of 'Is the Shadow the original person or not?' debate that Brandon doesn't want to answer so whether it's really death or not is probably up to interpretation.

For Ascension, we know that you can give up a Shard voluntarily and that doing so returns you to how you were prior to Ascending, but you'll be a Sliver and that means some sort of permanent changes due to all the Investiture expanding your soul. So I'd probably say that Ascension doesn't count as death in a meaningful sense.

Quote

"Zahel" might if his arc with "Azure" happens. In some way he finds his purpose and something miraculous would happen in that moment.

Brandon has said we'll eventually learn the purpose he was Returned for and the most obvious way that would happen is if we get to see it from his perspective like we did with Lightsong and it turns out that Endowment's plan for him was really long-term. That said, it's entirely possible that through one method or another Vasher has sidestepped whatever was 'supposed' to happen and is making his own destiny, but we'll find out what was intended to happen some other way.

I do expect him to die eventually but since sacrifice via Divine Breath healing was such a big part of the climax of Warbreaker, I expect things will happen differently in Vasher's case.

[salka]

I think Dalinar is pretty likely, or whoever the champion will be (pleasenotadolinpleasenotadolin). Can't really see them winning the duel, that would just end the story, right?

Honestly I just hope nobody will die! Except maybe Moash. And maybe Venli, I don't think she has done enough to earn forgiveness. And she probably can't ever do that.

But maybe if they achieve the fifth ideal, Szeth and Kaladin might actually die. Someone said Jasnah is immune so I guess she won't. Maybe Navani? But what will happen to the tower then? The sibling is NOT going to bond another human if Navani just dies a week after they bonded..

 

On 9/7/2021 at 1:42 PM, Zoey said:

I kinda think that Rock is already dead. He broke a law of his people, and left to go there, saying goodbye, and when Drehy and Skar returned, they said that he would never be coming back. I saw that as pretty heavily implying he might have been executed. 

I read somewhere that there will be a novella about what Rock is up to after RoW. I can't imagine it ending with him dying, that would be to sad.

[Lament on the Wind]

Adolin is 60% going to die. Also I  have a bad feeling about Syl (those daggers aren't going to sit idle ).

[cometaryorbit]

Do we know that arc 1 will end badly? Obviously there has to be unresolved issues for a second arc, but the other possibility I see is that the immediate conflicts (contest of champions, Ishar/Shinovar things Szeth and Kaladin are doing, maybe Ba-Ado-Mishram issue) are resolved in ways that look more or less satisfactory to the characters but leave hints that something larger is still coming. Kind of (Mistborn)

Spoiler

More like the end of book 1 where the skaa rebellion succeeds and Lord Ruler is killed but his dying words hint that he was somehow protecting the world from a larger doom, than the end of book 2 where Ruin's release is an obvious "things are worse now".

In the first case Dalinar almost certainly dies (its a duel to the death after all) but becomes a Cognitive Shadow, in the second case he probably wins & lives (and possibly Ascends for real this time).

Shallan seems the next most likely of the major characters to die, although becoming a Cognitive Shadow seems plausible (I think she's a better candidate for a new Herald or quasi-Herald than Kaladin).

Adolin... no clue...

I agree Kaladin, Lift, Jasnah, and likely Renarin are probably safe for writing/out of world reasons. Navani possibly also (both because Brandon probably wants her to be around advancing fabrial tech in the gap between arcs and also because we already had a plot about Dalinar's wife's death in OB).

I expect Kaladin to be around in the second arc but not at the forefront, as a counselor, advisor, or teacher of some sort.

Lift, Jasnah, and Renarin are supposed to be important in the second arc.

Stormfather death seems frighteningly plausible, and could fit the Night of Sorrows idea (no more stormlight), but I'm not sure about either the practicality of it (would anti Stormlight dagger be enough?) or whether that would totally change the setting to the point of making it not feel like Roshar anymore for arc 2.

 

[RAFOmancer]

I feel Adolin will die.And, the Fused have no more use of Moash,so they might as well kill him...(GOOD RIDDANCE!!!!)

[Rg2045]

2 hours ago, RAFOmancer said:

I feel Adolin will die.And, the Fused have no more use of Moash,so they might as well kill him...(GOOD RIDDANCE!!!!)

I don’t think kill more like abandon and cut off the dampening of his emotions. So that he suffers.

also I think kaladin dying idk I feel he as a bunch of stuff to do with the mental health healing 

szeth I can see dying honestly his part is kinda over, Dalinar is going to live forever as a shard or a fused. Funny, people kept saying how odium never made another fused for 7,000+ years but he wants Dalinar so much it could make navani Jealous 

[RAFOmancer]

 

12 hours ago, Rg2045 said:

I don’t think kill more like abandon and cut off the dampening of his emotions. So that he suffers.

Actually,yeah,let the traitor suffer for his sins!

[Elegy]

On 22.6.2022 at 11:43 PM, cometaryorbit said:

Do we know that arc 1 will end badly? Obviously there has to be unresolved issues for a second arc, but the other possibility I see is that the immediate conflicts (contest of champions, Ishar/Shinovar things Szeth and Kaladin are doing, maybe Ba-Ado-Mishram issue) are resolved in ways that look more or less satisfactory to the characters but leave hints that something larger is still coming. Kind of (Mistborn)

It's confirmed that it will be some kind of closure:

Quote

Flagrandall

Will Stormlight Five feel like the end of a series, or will it be more open-ended so that the next five books finish the story?

Brandon Sanderson

It's going to be somewhere in between those two. It will be a climactic book and should be paced differently than any other Stormlight book. I'm not sure how much I wanna to spoil, but just the pacing is going to be different. I'm going to be treating it different in how I write and build it just from a structural level. But it should feel like a climactic book. But it's not the end. It's not as much an ending as Mistborn Era One was, and even Mistborn Era One left a big door open for future eras; and it's not that decisive. When I release Book Six, it will be Book Six of The Stormlight Archive. And yes, there will be a change in focus, but if you hadn't known that, it would feel like a time jump and a little bit of a changeover, but you wouldn't go into it going, like, "Oh, this reads like a completely different series." Yes, Lift is going to be a bigger character and the Heralds are going to be bigger characters, and Renarin and Jasnah will be bigger characters. But Renarin and Jasnah are alraedy fairly decently prominent characters in The Stormlight Archive, so it's not gonna be out of nowhere.

I'll just have to let you guys see what you think, but that's what my impression of it is.

YouTube Livestream 39 (Feb. 1, 2022)

There's also a WOB that explicitly compares it to Mistborn 1, but I can't find it right now. It was on one of the live streams as well.

Edit: FOUND IT!

Quote

David

How intertwined are the two halves of The Stormlight Archive? Will you need to read the first half to know what's happening in the second half? If you read the first half, will you need to read the second half to get that sense that the story has come to an end?

Brandon Sanderson

I've never done something like this before. They are less intertwined than, say, Mistborn Two and Three. But maybe equivalent intertwined to Mistborn, as Mistborn is intertwined to Mistborn Two and Three, if that makes sense. It depends. Maybe even a little less than that, actually.

I think that you are going to want to view them as one big series of ten books. And we are going to come to an ending, and there will be some very satisfying things about it. But it's definitely going to be a promise there is more to come. I've never done anything quite like this. Less final than Mistborn Three, certainly.

So, I don't know. I didn't think anyone would read the Wax and Wayne books without reading the first ones, but I get emails all the time from people who started with those because those are the ones that appealed to them. I think you could start with Book Six of The Stormlight Archive, and it wouldn't feel strange. I think it would be harder to stop with Book Five, if that makes sense. Of those two options. But it's all gonna depend on your personal preferences, and things like that.

It's an excellent question. Plus, I haven't written the fifth book yet, and that's gonna inform a lot. These things change and morph as I'm going; every one of them does. So, who knows. I can explain better after Book Five is done.

YouTube Livestream 10 (June 18, 2020)

 

Edited July 5, 2022 by Elegy