#doodlecat2000

Okay so this will be in most likely to least likely (excluding villains- I highly doubt either Fintan or Gisela will end the series alive)

Lord Cassius. Honestly, I debated a lot on whether I should put him in the "good character" category because I despise that man. But out of everyone in KOTLC that isn't directly evil, I think he is the most likely to die. He might not be The Big Death, especially if anyone else on this list dies, but it's still worth noting. Gisela will probably go after Keefe once she realizes he's not going along with her plan, and Lord Cassius will die saving his life. They'll have a super emotional father-son moment where Cassius says something like "I always loved you Keefe" and gets some inkling of a kind of redemption arc before he dies.

Oralie. She is the single most likely candidate for The Big Death, in my opinion. There's honestly been a lot of foreshadowing for her secretly being a really great fighter- "never underestimate the quiet beauties", and "I think you might be the strongest of all of us", among other things. I think she is going to jump in at the crucial moment and end up fighting someone- likely Sophie's father if I'm right and he's a part of the Neverseen- to save Sophie. OR, for an extra dose of angst, I've had the idea lately that she might die to save Keefe, actually, not Sophie. She'll see Sophie and Keefe's relationship and realize how similar it is to her relationship with Kenric, and end up dying to save him. There might be a line like "I couldn't save Kenric, but I can save you." And then of course there will be a heartbreaking scene as she's dying between her and Sophie where Sophie forgives her or something, and I will be sobbing buckets in my college dorm room.

Ro. You know that rule in the Spiderman movies that if a character says "With great power comes great responsibility" they're going to die? Well, KOTLC has its own version of that: all of the important characters that have died have given Sophie something before they died: Kenric gave her his cache (through Oralie but it still counts), Calla gave her the Panakes tree (the cure), Mr. Forkle gave her his Wanderling seed and his device for keeping important things. All of these things have had varying impacts on the plot, but all very important. And Ro gave Sophie her dagger, Hope. There's no way that this isn't going to be important (Chekhov's gun, anyone?). Ro's told Sophie how Keefe feels about her and given her something to fight with- so everything she was hiding has now been revealed. I think she's very likely to be The Big Death- Sophie and Keefe both care about her and she's the exact type of character to dive into danger to save these kids.

Tiergan. Honestly, he is the exact type of character who might die. He's just minor enough of a character that it wouldn't break the series, and just major enough of a character that he has The Big Death potential. He's always been there and has given a lot of crucial intel to the series but has never really been involved in a big battle that I remember (correct me if I'm wrong). And he's incredibly loyal to these kids- like 1/3 of the main kid group has been adopted by him. He could very easily die to protect them. And looking at the characters that have died so far- Kenric, Calla, Forkle 1- he would fit right in the mix.

Wylie. I have one main reason for this: He's the only member of the main kid group (besides Rayni but she's too recent of a character to kill off) that isn't technically a kid. Yes, there is one actual kid on this list, but I highly doubt that Shannon would kill too many literal children because she hasn't yet. Most of the kids are safe in my opinion (Dex, Keefe, Linh, Tam, etc.) besides the one mentioned below. Wylie, on the other hand, is 20, and close to a lot of the kid characters (Solreef family <3). Even though I don't want my boy to go through anything else... he might very well die for *angst* purposes.

Fitz. This would probably be the worst option on the list, especially if it's done to resolve the love triangle. But... I can see it happening. He's both smart and loyal, and he cares very deeply about his friends. There are several characters I can see him sacrificing himself for: Sophie, Keefe, Biana, Alden/Della. If it's done, I really hope it's not to resolve the love triangle and that he has some excellent development before it happens. Shannon is a good enough writer that she could make it absolutely devastating without having anything to do with the love triangle.

Lady Cadence. This is kind of a shot in the dark but it still has its merits: She's contributed enough to the story that it would be a major setback if she died, but that's precisely why I think Shannon might go in this direction. Like I said earlier, Shannon hasn't actually killed off too many characters. If Lady Cadence was The Big Death and not a more prevalent character, it would be in keeping with the death level in the rest of the series.

Livvy. Same reason as Lady Cadence: A good character whose death would be a setback but wouldn't ruin the plot.

Alden. I don't want those poor Vacker children to have to go through anything else, but once again, Alden might very well be The Big Death. I don't really have any specific reasons why, just a gut feeling. This is the least likely death on this list, but I think he's important enough of a character to several of the main cast that he might die as a sort of "apology" for all of the mistakes he's made.

Honorable mentions, or characters that might die without being The Big Death: Blur and/or Wraith, several of the Councillors, Trix, Woltzer/Lovise/Bo or another bodyguard

While I doubt it was the only thing, it is likely publishing affected the diversity; this was a book pitched and sold in the early 2010s in an industry dominated by white women--I found an article from 2016 saying about 79% of publishing staff are white. The same survey in 2019 found 76% were white, so while I can't find one more recent at the moment, it's safe to say it's still a very white-dominated industry.

Keeper is published by Simon & Schuster, and I found a few various sources talking about them, but nothing significant enough to override what I've already cited (which applies to them as well). You can check out this site citing a few employee statistics about them, if you're curious.

If you look through the people Shannon thanks in the acknowledgments of her books--Like Laura Rennert, Lara Perkins, Taryn Fagerness, etc.--the people she's working with and surrounded by appear to be predominantly white women (though I didn't look up every single name, and I'm specifically focusing on book 1 right now), and the thing about agents and editors and all the like is that they'll be much more incentivized to work with/sell/buy a book that they connect to emotionally, which in this case is white stories.

The same applies to authors, which I think is another aspect of the supbar diveristy. Shannon's--as far as I know--an abled allocishet non-hispanic white American woman. Authors like to write stories they connect to and see themselves in (which isn't inherently a bad thing), and for her that means stories with straight, cis, abled white characters and heavy American influence. And this story is scouted and enjoyed by white agents/editors/publishers/etc. (I don't know enough about them to truly discuss their identities, I'm coming to conclusions based on suggestive evidence, but may be wrong).

I can't tell you what's going on in their heads, but it's entirely possible that the lack of diversity wasn't a conscious choice, but rather something that none of them prioritized or noticed. Publishers appear to have some sort of diversity "quota" as well, not going beyond it. This opinion piece briefly mentions it amongst the rest of its discussion, how white publishers at Simon & Schuster questioned whether they needed to bid to publish a black author when they already had another. This is, however, one anecdotal instance and may not be representative. My point in including it is to be aware of what the scene may be and how, even though Shannon is white and therefore more likely to be published, a story with increased diversity may not be seen as necessary or be pushed for. Instead, the diversity in their company can come from other authors. So unless Shannon makes that conscious effort herself, she won't be punished for the lack.

That all discusses this from the perspective of including diversity. There's also the matter of the diversity that is there, which has been dissected and commented on by people far more knowledgeable than me. The two are related, and there are likely similar causes.

Once again, Shannon doesn't have the personal experience or knowledge of the various characters/backgrounds she includes. And her editors/publishers likely don't either, which may explain in part what we see in the books. I don't know whether keeper has sensitivity readers or not, but if there aren't any that could also contribute.

Improvements have been made with time--there are more characters of color than when we started--but that doesn't make these improvements without fault. So I think she is making an effort, but it's falling short. And if the prior observation about how they can meet their diversity quota with other authors continues here, there may not be significant push from her publishers/editors etc. to truly focus on quality diverse representation. They're committed to her story at this point and won't stop her, but they don't need her to do much, perhaps? And Shannon has, to an extent, backed herself into a corner because so much of her story was established without diversity early on, and there's only so much she can add later--we see now how the cast is started to get very crowded and complicated with all its additions, and her focus is on Sophie regardless.

There's a lot going on and I'm only touching the tip of the iceberg--and I am not an expert or professional of any kind, so take my observations and hypotheses with a grain of salt--but based on what i know, publishers likely do play a factor. But Shannon herself plays a role as well; the fact of the matter is the story she wrote isn't very diverse. And it was appealing to certain publishers, because the industry is abled straight white woman dominated. So there is a lack of representation, and the representation there feeds into stereotypes and generally isn't good.

No one cause can be blamed, but instead the intersection of various reasons contribute to the diversity issues--that's my conclusion, but don't just take it from me. Think about it for yourself and listen to others as well. I don't quite know where I'm going with all this, but hopefully some of this satisfies your questioning