This is not an answer page. There are no hard and fast answers to this question, since even LS himself doesn't know how the story is going to end.
I am no longer accepting theories due to lack of any new guesses coming in.
How will it end? That's a very interesting question. So far, I have a few ideas, so let me share them with you.
From Sarah: �I believe at the end of the series Mr. Poe will find that the fortune is gone simply because he drew money out of it for the Baudelaires travel to all the different places he's sent them etc. Also in "The Bad Begining" Justice Strauss mentions "The illegal use of someones credit card." This could have something to do with The Baudelaire fortune, probably not, but it may have some sort of relevance to V.F.D.
From Danielle Du Puis: Lemony Snicket has too much of an excellent thing going here to stop at just thirteen books. There aren't enough strange kids books out there to read, (except for maybe the Pure Dead Magic trilogy by Debi Gliori, or the Eddie Dickens trilogy by Philip Ardaugh) so I think that the 13th book is going to end in a cliffhanger. THEN I believe that Lemony Snicket will write a new series called something like a Series of Dismal Events that features the Quagmire triplets as the main characters. I think that the current series will end with the Baudelaires finding out that the Quagmire triplets are really their long lost cousins or something like that and the five of them are captured by Count Olaf with Lemony Snicket following close behind in a motorcycle with a side car.
Another Eowyn thoery on the end. Perhaps Count Olaf will manage to steal their fortune, but he will be unable to kill the Baudelaires (either they escape from his clutches at the last minute, or someone else rescues them--if it were Lemony Snicket who did the rescuing, that would be pretty cool).� Lemony takes them into VFD, trains them, and they live with him, somewhat happily ever after.�
Joey Bear's theory on the end: Here it is: The Baudlaires are burnt in a fire started by Olaf, and in some sort of epilogue it says Lemony Snicket sets out to find Olaf and brings him to justice.
Toothpick Charlie's theory on the end: I believe the "Bauds" will be�"taken" by the VFD (Venetian Fashion Designers) and taken to the�warehouse where the will find Lemony Snicket tied up�with ties that are "out". There they will find Esme and she will try to kill them (again) But she is stopped by the most unlikely source ALIENS!!! I always thought they would come into the books. Any way, they transport them to the SOM. (Sound Of Music) where they are forced to sing "Doe a Deer"indefinitely.
Eowyn's theory on the ending I think that the Baudelaires will lose their fortune, but Count Olaf will either go to jail or die.� I have this wacked-out idea that maybe they will lose their fortune by spending it on something that they really really need to save their lives (even though they're not of age--I think they will just start buying things and get in so much debt that by the time Violet is old enough to inherit the money, it's all gone) or to put Olaf to justice.� What that would be, I don't know.� Maybe Olaf & Company should just go on the TV show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" so that they don't have to keep bothering poor little rich orphans.� That brings some strange mental images to mind.� Regis Philbin asking Olaf, sitting all disgruntled in the hot seat, some sort of useless trivia.� Even better, hearing the Man/Woman answer questions.� Maybe if we heard her/his voice, we'd be able to tell if it was a man or a woman.� I guess not though, because in THH they hear it roar and grunt but they still can't tell.� Anyway, back to my theory.� If the Bauds don't *spend* their money, then Mr. Poe will realize that he has been reading the wrong will after all, and that the Baudelaires aren't going to inherit any money at all and this whole Olaf deal has been a waste of everyone's time.� Or maybe Olaf will steal the money, but be unable to kill the Baudelaires due to a sudden spurt of kindness (HIGHLY UNLIKELY) and lets them go free to live out their miserable lives.� Or perhaps he gets the money but the Baudelaires escape to live out their miserable lives on the moon.�
Joe theory on the ending: Just from the purely financial aspect, the series _cannot_ end with a bad ending for the Baudelaires.� For if this happened, sales of volume 13 would quickly dwindle and, worse yet, _sales of all preceding volumes would drop through the floor_.� Because why would anyone buy and read 12 volumes knowing that the 13th is going to have a lousy ending?
In other words, if the 13th volume ends badly, there will only be one generation of readers for the Series of Unfortunate Events--the present readership--and that would be unfortunate, indeed.
Simple economics should prevent a bad ending.� Lemony Snicket's agent beating him over the head with ruler should help, too.
Robert Payett'e Theory on the Ending - I have a theory that, since there will be only 13 books in the series and from further research that Violet, won't inherit the fortune. I think that the "dead" Beatrice Baudelaire (rumored to be Baudelaire mother, survivor of fire, and Carrie E. Abelabudite patient of Heimlech Hospital) will find the Baudelaires and they will live happily ever after. Or, my other theory is that they will be thrown in jail for being accused of murder.
J. Mejia's theory on the ending- I think that O will be in a tough spot, E will rescue him, but they will have to stay in hiding. TheVFDers will come out of hiding the bad people will be arrested and will be burned at the stake. The survivors of the fire was Beatrice, and she marries Lemony. Afterward he will explain all the secrets to the Baudelaires and will adopt them as his children
Hanora's Theory on the Ending - I cast my vote for a bittersweet ending.� I think (hope) that Violet dies, but the other two live.� I hope that Lemony Snicket dies in the very end, and in the epilogue, it is explained that the publisher's found the manuscript, and published it anyway.� By this turn of events, nothing will ever be explained. NO Beatrice, no whether Baudelaires live or die (except for Violet who will die first) and no VFD. The sweet part? Count Olaf falls off a cliff or something, and drags Violet with him!
Sorry, I don't like her.
Deedee writes in with her theory about the end of the books: "I don't think the Baudelaires are going to die. Well, not at the end of the books, anyway. Page 44 of The Reptile Room has a passage about Klaus lying in bed *years* later, regretting the fact that he didn't immediately put Olaf in a cab. So, unless the last book takes place "years" later, I'm fairly certain that at least Klaus will be around for a while."
A young lady named Febe writes in to let us know what she thinks is going to happen: "i think that one of the baudelaire parents will be alive and with the money they still have they will buy a new house and live together."
or
"2: the parent thats still alive will find the baudelaires and together they will catch count o` laf and turn him into the police. these r all my ideas on how the storie will turn out to be at the end thanx for listing from: Febe"
David writes with his thoughts: "In the 13th book,by some crazy twist of events, Olaf, Esme,the assistiants, Mr. and Mrs.Baudelaire (whom I belive were the survivors mentioned in THH),Violet,Klaus,Sunny the Quagmires, the former gaurdians ( except the dead ones), and Mr.Snicket meet to discover all the things of the past and all, have O and E captured,and live happily,ever after".
Lisa Corino chimes in with her two coppers: "I think that the Baudelaires may end up dying in the end ,knowing how depressing he says all the books are."
I personally don't want to see this come about, but what will be will be.
rin McClenehen (I spelled it wrong, I'm sorry) Tells us what she thinks is going down, in Crazy Town: "I believe that everyone will realize the Baudelaires are not murderers and they will capture Olaf,Esme and the assistants and send them to jail; or be sentenced to be burn at the stake. (Even if they aren't caputured they will be killed anyways.) The Baudelaires will find a nice home. We can hope can't we?"
When asked how she thinks the series will end, Karen says- "There's no way it could end disasterously, or people would be disgusted with it. On the other hand, there's no way it can end happily, because then Lemony would have been lying to us the whole time and people would get disgusted with it. So that leaves a bittersweet ending. I think that the children will find a way to get themselves out of Olaf's power at last, but it will come at great cost. I don't think that any of the children (Quagmires or Baudelaires) will die, but any adult is fair game. It would be satisfying if Olaf were killed in a fire he ignited, which also destroyed either a person the children loved, or a crucial piece of evidence that would make all their lives better."
I am no longer accepting theories due to lack of any new guesses coming in.
How will it end? That's a very interesting question. So far, I have a few ideas, so let me share them with you.
- Count Olaf is soundly defeated and/or killed, and his henchmen scattered or captured. The Baudelaires go live with a friendly relative hitherto unknown to us, and they all live happily ever after.
- Lemony Snicket himself has been drawing himself closer and closer to the Baudelaires, and so it's possible that he will save them himself from Count Olaf at some point. Though since he is the cnronicler of these events, and is always a step or two behind where the Baudelaires are at the time, that makes that a little difficult.
- Count Olaf is soundly defeated, and the children either go to live with Lemony Snicket (an old friend of their family,) or are taken by VFD, and trained by them.
From Sarah: �I believe at the end of the series Mr. Poe will find that the fortune is gone simply because he drew money out of it for the Baudelaires travel to all the different places he's sent them etc. Also in "The Bad Begining" Justice Strauss mentions "The illegal use of someones credit card." This could have something to do with The Baudelaire fortune, probably not, but it may have some sort of relevance to V.F.D.
From Danielle Du Puis: Lemony Snicket has too much of an excellent thing going here to stop at just thirteen books. There aren't enough strange kids books out there to read, (except for maybe the Pure Dead Magic trilogy by Debi Gliori, or the Eddie Dickens trilogy by Philip Ardaugh) so I think that the 13th book is going to end in a cliffhanger. THEN I believe that Lemony Snicket will write a new series called something like a Series of Dismal Events that features the Quagmire triplets as the main characters. I think that the current series will end with the Baudelaires finding out that the Quagmire triplets are really their long lost cousins or something like that and the five of them are captured by Count Olaf with Lemony Snicket following close behind in a motorcycle with a side car.
Another Eowyn thoery on the end. Perhaps Count Olaf will manage to steal their fortune, but he will be unable to kill the Baudelaires (either they escape from his clutches at the last minute, or someone else rescues them--if it were Lemony Snicket who did the rescuing, that would be pretty cool).� Lemony takes them into VFD, trains them, and they live with him, somewhat happily ever after.�
Joey Bear's theory on the end: Here it is: The Baudlaires are burnt in a fire started by Olaf, and in some sort of epilogue it says Lemony Snicket sets out to find Olaf and brings him to justice.
Toothpick Charlie's theory on the end: I believe the "Bauds" will be�"taken" by the VFD (Venetian Fashion Designers) and taken to the�warehouse where the will find Lemony Snicket tied up�with ties that are "out". There they will find Esme and she will try to kill them (again) But she is stopped by the most unlikely source ALIENS!!! I always thought they would come into the books. Any way, they transport them to the SOM. (Sound Of Music) where they are forced to sing "Doe a Deer"indefinitely.
Eowyn's theory on the ending I think that the Baudelaires will lose their fortune, but Count Olaf will either go to jail or die.� I have this wacked-out idea that maybe they will lose their fortune by spending it on something that they really really need to save their lives (even though they're not of age--I think they will just start buying things and get in so much debt that by the time Violet is old enough to inherit the money, it's all gone) or to put Olaf to justice.� What that would be, I don't know.� Maybe Olaf & Company should just go on the TV show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" so that they don't have to keep bothering poor little rich orphans.� That brings some strange mental images to mind.� Regis Philbin asking Olaf, sitting all disgruntled in the hot seat, some sort of useless trivia.� Even better, hearing the Man/Woman answer questions.� Maybe if we heard her/his voice, we'd be able to tell if it was a man or a woman.� I guess not though, because in THH they hear it roar and grunt but they still can't tell.� Anyway, back to my theory.� If the Bauds don't *spend* their money, then Mr. Poe will realize that he has been reading the wrong will after all, and that the Baudelaires aren't going to inherit any money at all and this whole Olaf deal has been a waste of everyone's time.� Or maybe Olaf will steal the money, but be unable to kill the Baudelaires due to a sudden spurt of kindness (HIGHLY UNLIKELY) and lets them go free to live out their miserable lives.� Or perhaps he gets the money but the Baudelaires escape to live out their miserable lives on the moon.�
Joe theory on the ending: Just from the purely financial aspect, the series _cannot_ end with a bad ending for the Baudelaires.� For if this happened, sales of volume 13 would quickly dwindle and, worse yet, _sales of all preceding volumes would drop through the floor_.� Because why would anyone buy and read 12 volumes knowing that the 13th is going to have a lousy ending?
In other words, if the 13th volume ends badly, there will only be one generation of readers for the Series of Unfortunate Events--the present readership--and that would be unfortunate, indeed.
Simple economics should prevent a bad ending.� Lemony Snicket's agent beating him over the head with ruler should help, too.
Robert Payett'e Theory on the Ending - I have a theory that, since there will be only 13 books in the series and from further research that Violet, won't inherit the fortune. I think that the "dead" Beatrice Baudelaire (rumored to be Baudelaire mother, survivor of fire, and Carrie E. Abelabudite patient of Heimlech Hospital) will find the Baudelaires and they will live happily ever after. Or, my other theory is that they will be thrown in jail for being accused of murder.
J. Mejia's theory on the ending- I think that O will be in a tough spot, E will rescue him, but they will have to stay in hiding. TheVFDers will come out of hiding the bad people will be arrested and will be burned at the stake. The survivors of the fire was Beatrice, and she marries Lemony. Afterward he will explain all the secrets to the Baudelaires and will adopt them as his children
Hanora's Theory on the Ending - I cast my vote for a bittersweet ending.� I think (hope) that Violet dies, but the other two live.� I hope that Lemony Snicket dies in the very end, and in the epilogue, it is explained that the publisher's found the manuscript, and published it anyway.� By this turn of events, nothing will ever be explained. NO Beatrice, no whether Baudelaires live or die (except for Violet who will die first) and no VFD. The sweet part? Count Olaf falls off a cliff or something, and drags Violet with him!
Sorry, I don't like her.
Deedee writes in with her theory about the end of the books: "I don't think the Baudelaires are going to die. Well, not at the end of the books, anyway. Page 44 of The Reptile Room has a passage about Klaus lying in bed *years* later, regretting the fact that he didn't immediately put Olaf in a cab. So, unless the last book takes place "years" later, I'm fairly certain that at least Klaus will be around for a while."
A young lady named Febe writes in to let us know what she thinks is going to happen: "i think that one of the baudelaire parents will be alive and with the money they still have they will buy a new house and live together."
or
"2: the parent thats still alive will find the baudelaires and together they will catch count o` laf and turn him into the police. these r all my ideas on how the storie will turn out to be at the end thanx for listing from: Febe"
David writes with his thoughts: "In the 13th book,by some crazy twist of events, Olaf, Esme,the assistiants, Mr. and Mrs.Baudelaire (whom I belive were the survivors mentioned in THH),Violet,Klaus,Sunny the Quagmires, the former gaurdians ( except the dead ones), and Mr.Snicket meet to discover all the things of the past and all, have O and E captured,and live happily,ever after".
Lisa Corino chimes in with her two coppers: "I think that the Baudelaires may end up dying in the end ,knowing how depressing he says all the books are."
I personally don't want to see this come about, but what will be will be.
rin McClenehen (I spelled it wrong, I'm sorry) Tells us what she thinks is going down, in Crazy Town: "I believe that everyone will realize the Baudelaires are not murderers and they will capture Olaf,Esme and the assistants and send them to jail; or be sentenced to be burn at the stake. (Even if they aren't caputured they will be killed anyways.) The Baudelaires will find a nice home. We can hope can't we?"
When asked how she thinks the series will end, Karen says- "There's no way it could end disasterously, or people would be disgusted with it. On the other hand, there's no way it can end happily, because then Lemony would have been lying to us the whole time and people would get disgusted with it. So that leaves a bittersweet ending. I think that the children will find a way to get themselves out of Olaf's power at last, but it will come at great cost. I don't think that any of the children (Quagmires or Baudelaires) will die, but any adult is fair game. It would be satisfying if Olaf were killed in a fire he ignited, which also destroyed either a person the children loved, or a crucial piece of evidence that would make all their lives better."