In the epic fantasy work ​The Way of Kings​ by​ Brandon Sanderson​, the specific sequence 

of events within the text is crucial to the denouement of the novel as a whole. 
Specifically, two seemingly minor events, if placed in a reversed order, would drastically 
alter the course of the story. In the first event, the main character gains the trust and 
loyalty of his comrades who have been placed in the same situation as him. Then, he 
begins to train them in order to escape the aforementioned plight. 

Kaladin​, one of the main characters of the novel, has been enslaved and assigned to a 
brutal, deadly, and demoralizing task: running wooden bridges across the battlefields to 
allow the armies to cross the chasms of the ​Shattered Plains​. Within the normal 
chronology of the story,​ Kaladin​ gains the trust and loyalty of the other people in his 
Bridge Squadron through a series of events. After a time, the Bridge Squad is assigned 
to chasm duty, a chore in which they must descend ladders down the ravines of the 
Shattered Plains​ to reclaim armor, weaponry, and other miscellaneous items from fallen 
soldiers. Through this, ​Kaladin​, a former spearman in the military, eventually trains his 
fellow bridgerunners, as they are called, to fight as a squadron of skilled spearmen. This 
eventually allows him and his squadron to save the life of ​Dalinar Kholin​, a renowned 
general and prince, after a large betrayal in a massive battle. Through this event, ​Kaladin 
and his squadron gain their freedom and resolve the plot of the book, as well as 
allowing for the events of the second text to come to pass. 

If the two aforementioned scenes had happened in the reverse order, much would have 
changed. Before ​Kaladin​ managed to raise the morale of his comrades and gain their 
loyalty, all of them were severely depressed and on the verge of suicidal. As such, if his 
Bridge Squad were assigned to chasm duty before he was able to rouse their spirits, 
even if marginally, and gain their trust and loyalty, their training with the spear would 
never have passed, they would never have been able to save ​Dalinar​ and his men's lives, 
they would have never been saved, and the denouement of the entire novel would have 
been completely unrecognizable from what is with all events in the proper sequential 
order.