Today’s Top Ten Tuesday was Top Ten Questions I Would Ask My Favorite Authors. I have so many questions for so many authors, but the author who has definitely left me with the most questions was Daniel Handler, a.k.a. Lemony Snicket. Most of these unanswered questions were intentionally left unknown as part of the themes of the series, but I’d at least love the chance to ask them, even if I didn’t expect to get an answer. I’m thinking of these as being posed to Daniel Handler, rather than the ficitonal Lemony Snicket, because the character Lemony Snicket would be unable to answer most of them in-universe. There are obviously major spoilers, or rather non-spoilers (since they’re asking about what doesn’t get answered), ahead, so don’t read it if you haven’t read the series and think you might want to!

Do Violet, Klaus, and Sunny survive leaving the Island?

I know that this ambiguity regarding the ending is important to the book, but i really need to know. Offhanded remarks would indicate Sunny survived, but what about Klaus and Violet? I need to know.

Who started the Baudelaire fire?

Again, we’re not supposed to know because the Baudelaires and Lemony Snicket have no way of knowing, but there must be a concrete answer. I don’t personally think Count Olaf did it, and that if he did then he was one of several people responsible, but if not him, I don’t know who would have. Esme?

Did either Baudelaire parent survive?

I feel like the answer is probably no, but what if they did?

Who survived the fire at the Hotel Denouement?

I don’t care much about this, but I would like to know if Jerome did.

What is the Great Unknown?

The Quagmires are my favorites and I need to know if there’s the slightest chance that they’re okay. I take great solace in the fact that they survived in the show-universe.

How long did the series take place over?

There are so many theories about this, and i’d love a concrete answer.

Did the sugar bowl have the horseradish hybrid in it?

I don’t think it did in the book universe, but it seemed very likely in the show-universe. I wouldn’t want to ask what the importance of the sugar bowl is, since he has said that there is a concrete, knowable answer and I’d like to figure it out myself, but I would like to know if this first most-obvious theory is the (rather-disappointing) solution.

Does the sugar bowl have anything in it at all?

I feel like this would be possible, and definitely fit with the overall series. It wouldn’t be terribly satisfying as an answer, but it’d be more fitting than the above theory.

Is the poison dart explanation for the death of Count Olaf’s father in the show the same situation that was referred to in the books?

The show depicted this scene in detail, while the books only hinted at a connection between the Baudelaire parents, poison darts, and the deaths of Count Olaf’s parents. I’d like to know if the show’s explanation is what Daniel Handler was thinking as he wrote the books.

What are your thoughts on the movie and show adaptations?

I can’t imagine he’s satisfied with the movie, but the show is much more true to the books, so I’d love to know if he was completely satisfied with it, particularly the added characters and the introduction of VFD and the sugar bowl way earlier.

If you’ve read the series, what unanswered questions from A Series of Unfortunate Events would you most like to know the answer to? Are there any other authors who left tons of unsolved mysteries in their books?