Fans Helping Decide The Storyline?!

A few weeks ago, the exclusive Hyperspace section of starwars.com offered a poll to fans, providing four choices that would determine the look of Obi-Wan's droid in Episode III. The poll was a phenomenal success, and was fantastic in that it provided fans with an opportunity of influencing an element in the final Star Wars film.

I believe that Lucasfilm has discovered something special with this concept, and I believe that it should continue across all areas of the Star Wars licensing franchise. There already has been another precedent, as fans have in the past, been given the opportunity to select a specific Hasbro toy to be produced. Consider it a form of market research, with an outcome that fans truly want. I believe it would be great for example, if Lucasfilm / Del Rey offered a poll to determine the next storyline for a novel. Perhaps instead of a single poll, fans could be offered a number of polls that would eventually determine the high-level key points of the story: character, time-period, style of novel, etc...

Star Wars fans are quite capable of coming up with interesting story ideas, as evidenced in this thread in the
Literature Forums.

For example, fans could be given the following four choices:

Lead Character
A) Luke Skywalker
B) Obi-Wan Kenobi
C) Jacen Solo
D) Mara Jade

Time Period (dependant on the character chosen)
A) Rebellion Era
B) Clone Wars
C) Post NJO
D) Between Episode III - IV

Style of Novel
A) Noir / Political
B) War / Action
C) Adventure / Romance
D) Horror / Thriller

I believe that only high-level options can be offered, otherwise, it could remove the element of surprise for fans when reading the novel, and potentially limit the creative freedom of the author. One possible counterpoint to the idea is that do we really want fans deciding how the stories go? Will they make the best decisions for the directions for the characters to do?

What do you think?

 

while i hope that the editors are looking for what the fans want, i would hope that they don't always cave into what the fans want... i think that if they always did a poll and followed the results, some people who want the less popular characters/eras might get the short end of the gimer stick.

maybe if they did it once every few years.

 

Would get boring rather quickly

 

Now I think it is alright for choosing the small things such as the color of Obi-Wan's Droid. But I don't think it is okay to choose things such as settings. It just takes the fun out of the movie.

 

The ultimate dream project for Star Wars, IMHO, is to do a MASSIVE chronicling of everything that happened in the Republic before the time of Palpatine. According to who you listen to, there's 25,000 years of history to explore... and they've barely scratched the surface. For one thing it would make the Star Wars saga that much richer: "The Lord of the Rings" is wonderful by itself but it's also merely a few years at the end of a millennia-long epic, and if you read "The Silmarillion" and everything else that Tolkien wrote your appreciation is much greater. I see the Star Wars movies in the same way: they're the capstone of a much grander epic that would be fun to see gone into.

That and also, a unified effort to explore the backstory would be the PERFECT time to fix continuity errors in the EU, make it "jibe" with the movies

 

Continuity errors? Why, whatever do you mean?

 

Didn't we, through Kathy Tyers, influence DR into having Ben born earlier than he was originally planned for?

 

It would seem to be a good idea but you would have to find the correct writers for the project. I mean their can't be that many accomplished sci-fi wrtiers that would actually enjoy writing a Star Wars adventure/romance Novel, and if the writer is not into the story it will suffer tremendously.

 

Continuity errors? Why, whatever do you mean?

Let's put it this way: compared to the minefield of conflicts found throughout the Star Wars EU, Doctor Who looks like a Tolstoy epic

 

Continuity errors are not the sole domain of the EU. After all, Lucas told us in ESB that Yoda had been Obi-Wan's Jedi Master. Yet then in TPM we're suddenly told it was Qui-Gon who had been his master. I believe it was the EU that had to fix that error, and the fix was what we ended up seeing in AotC. Errors end up getting fixed.

As far as the question at hand goes, I'd say it would be a good thing for minor issues but not a good thing for major issues. Ben's birth being earlier than originally planned is an example of minor issue, no matter how much any of us may disagree. The events that happened on Duros late in BP would be more an example of a major issue.

 

Obi-Wan's droid was a very minor element of the movie. Having fans choose the plot of an entire book is a bad idea, and LFL/DR will likely never try.

 

If you read my editorial, I never suggested that readers choose the entire plot. Just major elements, who the center character would be, time period, etc...

 

Why not just make your own story?

If I were an EU writer, I wouldn't want to receive a list of demands from the fanbase.

It might be nice to do general polls as far as which character do you want to see more of, or what kinds of stories do you want to read, but to actually take votes on the major plot points or anything like that would be too limiting to the author, and as a result it would probably not be much good to the fans who voted for those ideas.

 

It would be a good idea if it was very general. Just main characters and time period.

 

Sir, this is the first time I have posted an
opinion on this site, although I have seen
several topics up for review, I wanted to
respond to this one. (Now I hope I don't muck
it all up. Nothing ventured nothing gained..)

I think it would be a good idea for the
fans to help decide the storyline. After all
we are the ones who are reading the stories,
even creating them so that the Star Wars
galaxy will be that much richer and wonderous
to visit. I would love to have a part in it,
helping to fill in the gaps and create new
tales to tell.

Everyone has their idea for what should
occur in the Star Wars universe (the loss
of Borsk Fey'lya was brilliant in my opinion
--such a jerk)and all should be heard.

But that is my opinon. There are stories
waiting to be told and I want to read them.

Intensefancyblue

 

But why would you want to read a story if you already know what happens.

And your right, blue, Fey'lya needed to die. I just wish it could been by a lightsaber.

 

By the stars alive, you're saying Ben would have been born much later?!

What are they waiting for, for his parents to reach fifty and then have a kid? It's never occurred to the directing parties that the earlier you have the baby in, the more books remaining you can develop plots for it? It's not just any kid from any father, you know.

Well . . . not that anything has been done for Ben at all now.

 

I think it would be a good idea for the
fans to help decide the storyline. After all
we are the ones who are reading the stories,
even creating them so that the Star Wars
galaxy will be that much richer and wonderous
to visit. I would love to have a part in it,
helping to fill in the gaps and create new
tales to tell.

Everyone has their idea for what should
occur in the Star Wars universe (the loss
of Borsk Fey'lya was brilliant in my opinion
--such a jerk)and all should be heard.

You're right, you are entitlaed to your opinion. I accept that and have no intention of telling you that you are not entitled to it.

But the problem I see with what is being suggested as a whole for this topic is that it will lead to more and more fans being upset by the direction of things. Especially if fans are brought in to help with major plot elements in stories. As it stands right now we must accept the authors choices. And I find it easier to accept what we don't have control of when it comes to major plot elements in the stories. We can yell and scream all we want about how we don't like what happened.

Yet giving us say in major plot elements actually makes SW novels cheap elections. Which cheapens the SW experince rather than enriching it. Folks will be more and more likely to hate the stories when their opinions and their vote on the elements is not listened to. It will become "Oh we had a chance to affect the story and a bunch of idiots were the ones whom they listened to."

 

I'm pretty sure my constant pestering about Tendra Risant, and getting other ppl to pester as well, had something to do with her appearing in Balance Point.

 

lol, let's not forget Luke's hairpiece in TUF cover

seriously though I don't like the idea of letting us choose the plot. Does anybody remember Fan Choice Number 4 when the Stormtrooper was chosen? At RebelScum nearly *everybody* was in uproar at this, because Dignitary and Reeikan had gotten a huge lead. People thought the poll had been hacked. I don't want to see this happening with SW.

But small things like the droid are ok.

 

that sound like a pretty silly idea even for the eu

 

Go-Mer-Tonic:
Why not just make your own story?

Because fanfics aren't considered canon.

It might be nice to do general polls as far as which character do you want to see more of, or what kinds of stories do you want to read, but to actually take votes on the major plot points or anything like that would be too limiting to the author, and as a result it would probably not be much good to the fans who voted for those ideas.

But these polls would merely (as indicated by the examples in The Gatherer's post) decide the main character, the time frame, and the type of novel, not the actual plot.

QUI-GON_JEFF:
But why would you want to read a story if you already know what happens.

Like I said above, people don't know what's going to happen. They only know the main character, time frame, and type of novel (action, political, romance, etc.), which readers usually know before a book comes out anyway.