You perfectly put into words how I felt about mister impossible (I mean, not surprised, you're a super talented writer) and I just wanted to ask your opinion (if you're up to it) about pynch endgame? I know she said once they won't break up, but after mi I, sadly, wouldn't be surprised if they do, or (worse) if one of them ends up dead lol. Your fics are honestly how I'm coping ❤️
I am not worried about the Pynch endgame.
I do recall Maggie saying that she wasn't planning on breaking them up; I also recall that being a while ago, and there are clearly things about the trilogy that she has changed her mind about while writing (Adam POV in Mister Impossible being an example that comes to mind). But as someone who doesn't follow her on social media and generally ignores most of what she says (in a benevolent sort of way), that isn't really where my opinion is coming from.
I just don't frankly think that's where the story is headed from a story crafting point of view. Mister Impossible is a really bleak book for the two of them separately and for their relationship, which takes a huge toll on them both and on their relationship, that leaves them both in a bad place individually and in their relationship. It's...a really bleak book that's horrible and damaging to all of the characters. It is the second in a trilogy. That's kind of how the second in a trilogy is supposed to end. Empire Strikes Back ends with Han Solo frozen in carbonite and Luke minus a hand and plus a shitty dad. I will save you all ten thousand dollars in film school tuition and tell you the end of the second act in a three act structure is called "the dark night of the soul." We've all been left hanging at what is supposed to be just about the shittiest things can be.
Which is not to say that bad things won't happen in CAWK III, or that "obviously Maggie is going to give us a happy ending because of Hollywood plot conventions," but a story needs some kind of resolution of events that have happened, and when everything that came before is downswing, "more downswing" is not...terrifically...satisfying. "At least some kind of upswing" is satisfying. The fact that Mister Impossible calls attention to the strain on their relationship and the way Ronan has shut Adam out and the pain that shit has caused both of them means that whatever comes after Mister Impossible has to reckon with that, and just "I'm going to keep shutting you out forever/I'm going to walk away since that's what you want, apparently" isn't plot development. It's plot staying in one place.
(Now, I suppose if Maggie really did want a story where they break up and stay broken up, forever, she would also have to make the problems in their relationship a subject of the series. But I think if "they are broken up" is the resolution she was aiming for, we wouldn't have them broken up during the "darkest hour" that's supposed to be a massive low point of the story. We'd have them together but in a way that's utterly miserable and unhealthy.)
As for either of them dying: I definitely had my "Adam is going to die" panic back when the trilogy was first announced, but honestly, if she was going kill off a character she clearly loves, that fans love, that was a major character in the previous books, she really, really needed to have given him an actual arc in this trilogy and not just like a couple of chapters aborted attempt at an arc that didn't really go anywhere. So I don't think we're getting that. And killing off Ronan Lynch? And his flirtations with suicidal ideation? And his history of attempting to obliterate himself? And the constant, four book long paranoia about what will happen to Matthew when he dies? Killing him off isn't a character arc, it's not a plot arc, it's ending up back where we started, and "character goes on a long journey that ends up right back with them in the horrible place they started" is a genre of story but I don't think it's the one that Maggie is telling.
Declan, now. I am somewhat nervous that Declan's life is up for grabs. Not enormously so, but the thought creeps up on me when my brain wants to keep me on my toes.
