Kept with SoA until I tired of the “3 concurrent life-or-death crises” formula, with a new life-or-death crisis introduced each time an older one reached its end.

All principal characters even went to prison for a year, with no such crises for the rest of the MC, and then as soon as they got out, straight back to “3 concurrent life-or-death crises” as usual.

The rest of the MC should have realized “Hey, things were so chill when those guys were away, let’s get 'em sent back”.