Lady Peace is the first hostage taken when economic discomfort rises. - Lois McMaster Bujold

It's an interesting problem, though, for writers of popular series. Should one throw one's protagonist over the Reichenbach Falls, or let him fade gently into the sunset of the Sussex Downs, keeping bees? (Or both?) No matter which the writer chooses, someone will be unhappy about it. If one's audience is large enough, it will collectively demand every possible closure, most mutually exclusive.

Captains may come and captains may go, but the administration goes on forever.

“If I got assassinated now,” he shrugged helplessly, “my father would kill me.”