ST Do Fan Theories Affect The Writers?

So watching some great YouTube videos on all sorts of SW universe theories.
In the past few years my favourite has been the Snoke is Plageuis angle - or
any relating to Snoke.

Problem is , I'm sure SW writers are aware of all these theories and then will
specifically keep away from them when writing the story.

So where I like them as a cool read, they could be damaging to the overall
story of SW in as much that all the cool stuff will be discussed so the writers will
have to choose something new.

It's like LOST, some of the theories online about the smoke monster were amazing - what it turned
out to be was complete and utter bilge - it's like the writers had an idea that also had been
discussed on the net so they thought "No we can't use that " ... and of course all the good ones
are discussed, so they are left with crap.

Thats an extreme example - but what do you think ?
Could this effect the quality of the next film ?
Like I am pretty sure Snoke could have been more interesting had the Plageuis theory not been discussed online.

 

I think some of the main problems people have with TLJ are caused by the fact that it was written before TFA released causing it to ignore/brush aside a lot of stuff people started theorising about after seeing TFA.

 

I thought so, especially certain things that happened that were considered fanfiction for 2 years, but it seems some people just had the same thoughts as Rian and picked up on things JJ put out there in VII. IX might need to be written from scratch but the basic outline and fate of the main characters was likely decided back in 2013. If you like a certain character or want a certain couple, or want someone related to someone from the OT, it won't matter if they were already decided before TFA released. What you see and get will not change for the sake of a minority or even a majority.

 

Seemingly, the theories affect the writers to the extent that they go out of their way to prove fans wrong.

When the entire premise for a film is "this is not going to go the way you think," my response is (especially in light of finding out the events of TLJ were written before TFA was put together) why did you set us up and mislead us in that way?

I've learned my lesson from TLJ. A franchise should generate theories along the lines of "how will ____" react or "what will _____" do next, etc. Instead, with this franchise, there were deliberate gaps left in the story that for any other film, we would have had full details on and had we not had those, we we would have called those plot holes.

However here, because of those gaps and because we love Star Wars, we had years of people excitedly speculating to try and fill in those deliberate gaps...things like "this person is really _____" or "_____ happened to get X person to _____" and in the end the final answer was "who cares," almost across the board for all of it. Especially when, in light of the deleted tweets from Hidalgo, it seems that TFA was specifically created just to mislead the fans.

I see TLJ in its final form as a massive middle finger from the people writing these stories to those who wanted to love them, and to be honest I'm not sure it had to be that way. Maybe some people enjoy being mind****ed and that entertains them in their films, but I would rather be entertained in ways that don't seem to purposely set me up and then tell me "ha!" or get glee out of the fact that i was wrong.

So for Ep 9, I predict that given most of the theories are off the table, there will be zero impact on the writing this time. Maybe we'll get a normal story, and a small part of me hopes the pendulum swings the other way, but on the other hand I care much less.

 

It's difficult to say, because TLJ was written well before the release of TFA. I do think Snoke's line to Rey: "Skywalker I presumed. . . Wrongly" might be Rian's nod to the rampant Rey parentage theories (which began immediately upon news of Daisy Ridley's casting).

 

I feel a lot of 4th wall breaking happened. Like when Kylo said Rey had no place in this story. What story? Is Kylo telling a tale? Haha!

 

@JorakUln what deleted tweets?

 

Pablo deleted all his tweets sometime ago, and the rest are set to delete after a certain time. He's kind of fed up I guess.

 

To a degree i believe so, maybe indirectly. A director could be writing the script and thinking what's one way to shock them- they might look online at all the theories and think of a plot/scene/revelation that will be nothing like the theories suggest.

 

Thankfully not because although a lot of us (me included) believe that we have great directions where the story should go, we would end up causing more damage to the Star Wars brand than apparently RJ has done; which in my opinion, RJ has not and on the contrary has enriched the universe in a direction that was unexpected.

But in saying that, there are things I do wish I could see on the screen. But that's just my head cannon speaking.

 

So I should blame the popular 'Plagueis is Snoke' theorists for Plagueis not being Snoke. If only they'd kept quiet

 

I agree. That took me right out of the film, sadly, which shouldn't happen.

 

Yeah a lot of the dialogue felt like it was talking to the audience.

 

haha that was the main thing that came to my mind. Who knows maybe he is Plagueis, if he was able to cheat death once a 2nd time shouldn't be a problem for him

 

Part of me is still holding out hope, even though I doubt it'll happen.

 

Fan theories didn't help Rian Johnson

 

Huh......I wish they would make a Plagueis movie so people would stop mentioning him. This trilogy was always supposed to be about a bad Skywalker ruling the galaxy. That's why Snoke died early. But back on topic. I do think the writers might not use some ideas because they are mentioned by fans. I think they probably thought A New Order or Balance of the Force would be the perfect title but won't use them do to people mentioning them.

 

So if we all start posting on twitter all the things we don't want to happen, but say we do want them to happen, then JJ won't be able to do those things? Schweet!

 

LOL! I know. That line was so awful and out of place. Just like someone in the rebellion saying “Godspeed” to someone else during a battle. What?! I’m a Christian and I found it so ridiculously out of place.

But to the OP’s point - didn’t RJ lift a ton of plot points (Force Skype, fingers touching, rey’s Drunkard parents, etc) from some fanfic that was online?

 

No.

 

^

 

Imagine in the real consumer world if corporations ignored or purposely went against customer ideasvand requests? Sure this is art but it's primarily entertainment and it's a business that serves customers. Not saying all fans should be listened to but...

It's not so much about fan theories but fan desires.

 

Rian said in a tweet that on the ofttime during the shooting of TLJ they'd look at Zeroh just to see how crazy he'd go but Rian has since clarified that he was joking about it

 

Simply No.....

 

I was going to say yes but then read a theory that changed my mind to a no.