the goblin queen horror-tragedy ending of romantic heroine Maddy Pryor 1.0 as the only satisfying way to put a non-serial character type in a serial format during the pre-meta period

she's a HEA character who does everything right except "be in a format with no endgames" so she gets her life ruined, becomes a monster and dies. very cathartic

", in this sense she is a literary mutant; a transplant from an alternate universe where stories end and heroes stop moving. Her Other nature amongst the textually central Others casts her out from them, completing the natural loop,"

(it's actually only because the serial nature of x-men introduces her as a romantic heroine who lives a romance narrative too late in that serialisation—in a romance novel the widower gets a rebound HEA but in genre "x-men" the 2nd girl is born to lose)

There are *bunches* of romance novels where the Maddy protagonist—a woman who meets a man who moves her and discovers she's the spit of his dead ex/wife/etc—is like "we can weather this" and they do and that's that.

I read one where it turns out she was the unknown twin of the dead wife! She just marries the guy and he's all "you are more sparky than her, she was like a gentle flower, but i like your spark, it's all about you now" and she becomes the new mum to her adorable niece JOB DONE

Of course this is also partly to do with M Pryor being a romantic heroine and often a scene protagonist BUT not THE protagonist, or even a part of the titular group, of her published appearances. It's not about her so she can't have her completion.

a romance novel is very usually not "about" the husband, he's just also in it. So he realises he's a fool and repents and her story continues with him in it because she wants him there. X-Men story is "about" S Summers & his many ways. So, etc

she gets in, she tries hard, she loses hugely in a mad glamorous fashion, she gets out. for me...the only way to X.