What Characters Won't Survive to Their Flashback Books

[MistbornAlpaca he/him]

So we know that the flashback characters for the Stormlight Archive are as follows, First five are Kaladin, Shallon, Dalinar, Szeth, and Eshonai. The last five books are Renarin, Jasnah, Lift, Taln, and Shalash. We also know that Brandon has said that it is possible that characters may not survive until the book with their flashback sequences. What characters do we think won't survive, will survive, or you really, really want to survive? Personally the characters I think that will die before their books are Renarin and Jasnah. Other characters that I think have a possibility to die before their flashbacks are Jasnah. At this point, we know Kaladin and Shallon are alive during their books, and I for one am fairly certain Dalinar will survive Oathbringer. The other characters are up for grabs though. What do you guys think?

Edited October 14, 2017 by MasterJack

[Calderis he/him]

If any die prior to their flashbacks I honestly think it'll be Ash. And considering she's a Herald, I think that means she'll just go to Braize. 

[Catladyman]

I think either Szeth or Jasnah. Jasnah because it would be a great bait & switch & switch again for everyone to think she's dead, oh wait she's not dead, crap now she's dead for real. I also really love how mysterious she is, and while flashbacks are revealing, gaining them long after her death will only add to her mystique. Given the gap between halves of the series, I feel like it would be cool to hear back half characters casually reference the legend that she will become and how she changed the world, especially during her flashback book.

Szeth, almost like Jasnah, actually did die (I think?). He also leads a pretty risky lifestyle. He doesn't seem to fit in with the Skybreakers at all, and they, so far, are very unpleasant. Nale chose him as a Skybreakers because of how he stuck to his code, though he hates himself and no longer believes in that personal code. The fact that he seems to have bonded Nightblood makes this pretty unlikely, though.

So I say Jasnah's dead by 5!

[FeatherFawkes]

I agree and really think Jasnah might die, and though I don't really expect it to happen, maybe Renarin as well. With Eshonai though: Did I miss something, because I was totally convinced (and I hope this is no spoiler if I'm right) that she died? Nevertheless, one of the Kholins will surely die, that's one thing I'm quite certain about. They are such a large and tight family, that they'll have to break at some point. And using flashbacks to, for example, explain what was going on in Renarins mind, kind of sounds like a thing.

[Toaster Retribution he/him]

2 hours ago, FeatherFawkes said:

Did I miss something, because I was totally convinced (and I hope this is no spoiler if I'm right) that she died? 

It looked that way in WoR, but no one thinks she is dead. And as for spoilers, you can talk freely about anything that occurs in WOrds of Radiance and Way of Kings in the Stormlight section. If you want to talk Edgedancer, you need to go to Edgedancer Spoiler Board, and if you want to discuss Oathbringer material, you can only do that in the Oathbringer board. Welcome to the forum!

As for the topic, I agree about Jasnah being the most likely to die. I don't really see Renarin or Lift dying, and I see Taln living too. Ash is possible though, as we know nothing about what to expect from her (hope we get some more Ash in Oathbringer). Since Dalinar is alive, and Oathbringer is his flashback book, we can rule him out too. I doubt Eshonai will die before book four either. Szeth is possible though, so were I too bet, I would bet on him and Jasnah.

[MistbornAlpaca he/him]

Sorry, it's been 3 years since I've read WoR and TWoK. I'm about 60% done on my TWoK reread, then I'll dive back into WoR, so I don't remember as much as some. When we're talking about Ash, we mean Shalash, right? Also, I don't remember Eshonai dying, but I probably just forgot. My personal fantasy is that in some big battle with voidbringers, Eshonai will kill Renarin, sparking Dalinar to rage, and he kills Eshonai, possibly in the end of book 4 or 5, but that could also be a great ending to Oathbringer, what do you think? However I doubt Eshonai will die before her flashback book, but I think she will definitely die at some point. I think that during the gap between book 5 and 6, it would be really cool to have Dalinar actually go mad, and Renarin's flashbacks could actually be happening in his mind? Probably just another crackpot theory, but who knows?

16 hours ago, Catladyman said:

I think either Szeth or Jasnah. Jasnah because it would be a great bait & switch & switch again for everyone to think she's dead, oh wait she's not dead, crap now she's dead for real. I also really love how mysterious she is, and while flashbacks are revealing, gaining them long after her death will only add to her mystique. Given the gap between halves of the series, I feel like it would be cool to hear back half characters casually reference the legend that she will become and how she changed the world, especially during her flashback book.

I totally agree about Jasnah, and to add to your analysis, she also tends to dominate storylines she's part of. I don't see Szeth dying, but that's probably biased as he's my favorite character after Kaladin

[The One Who Connects he/him]

The Front Five:

• Kaladin: Survived
• Shallan: Survived
• Dalinar: Would it count if he dies before his final flashback in Oathbringer? (I doubt he will, but it's a sneaky way for Brandon to loophole us)
• Eshonai: Too soon. Don't think Brandon will bring her back in early-mid Oathbringer only to kill her before the end. He's not killing people off mid-character arc like GRRM yet.
• Szeth: I hope not. He's a personal favorite that I'd like to be in the back five. That and Nightblood will eventually have a part to play.

The Back Five: (In Brandon's preliminary order from September 2016)

• Lift: I don't think he'd kill off Lift without exploring how she's matured over the 15 yr gap between the front and back five.
• Renarin: We'll have to see how his character develops in Oathbringer, but he's a definite maybe.
• Shalash: Wild Card.
• Taln: After 4,500 years in Braize, I don't think Brandon is gonna send him back anytime soon. I also feel like viewing flashbacks from past Desolations interspersed between him viewing the current one will be a wonderful compare/contrast exercise.
• Jasnah: She's currently the the last book, so she's got the best odds of being dead before the book happens.

No matter their actual order: I doubt the first character in the back five will be dead already, for literary purposes.

[MistbornAlpaca he/him]

20 minutes ago, The One Who Connects said:

• Eshonai: Too soon. Don't think Brandon will bring her back in early-mid Oathbringer only to kill her before the end. He's not killing people off mid-character arc like GRRM yet.
• Szeth: I hope not. He's a personal favorite that I'd like to be in the back five. That and Nightblood will eventually have a part to play.

Now that you say that I think you're totally right on Eshonai, although I think she will eventually be killed, and as for Szeth, he is kind of a wild card, but unless we really get some serious things going on with Nightblood and him in Oathbringer, I think he will survive the front half of the series, and like I said, he's one of my favorites too so I'm really hoping he survives as long as possible.

20 minutes ago, The One Who Connects said:

• Lift: I don't think he'd kill off Lift without exploring how she's matured over the 15 yr gap between the front and back five.
• Renarin: We'll have to see how his character develops in Oathbringer, but he's a definite maybe.
• Shalash: Wild Card.
• Taln: After 4,500 years in Braize, I don't think Brandon is gonna send him back anytime soon. I also feel like viewing flashbacks from past Desolations interspersed between him viewing the current one will be a wonderful compare/contrast exercise.
• Jasnah: She's currently the the last book, so she's got the best odds of being dead before the book happens.

I really like the way you laid this out. When you put it like this, it all becomes a lot clearer, and I think you're mostly right. I think Renarin, Jasnah, or Dalinar will eventually die though, but not necessarily before their flashback books. I really like how FeatherHawkes put it:

13 hours ago, FeatherFawkes said:

Nevertheless, one of the Kholins will surely die, that's one thing I'm quite certain about. They are such a large and tight family, that they'll have to break at some point.

I'm going to add a poll to this, on who we think is most likely to die. Sorry, I'm obsessed with polls right now.  

Edited October 14, 2017 by MasterJack

[Yata he/him]

Lift had to be' alive in Arc2.

Brandon stated that the reason to write Edgedancer as Novellara was to show a bit of Lift's development because when She will be a Central character (in Arc2), She would be far ahead as KR