Are YouTube Theory videos ruining the filming industry?

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I can't help but think that Star Wars: the Force Awakens is heavily influenced by the indie horror franchise Five Nights at Freddy's due to all the "Theory" videos that have spawned right after the film's release.

And it seems like ever since the first Five Nights at Freddy's game came out on Steam, these "theory" videos seem to have gotten a lot more popular as of today.

I sincerely doubt it is a coincidence. I think Disney saw the success that Five Nights at Freddy's had on YouTube and decided to purposely make the film's plot as vague and mysterious as possible just so that there would be "Who is Snoke" and "Is Rey Luke's daughter" videos just for the sake of free publicity and advertising.

Am I surprised by this? No. Many corporate companies have done this sort of thing; the whole "let's make X franchise similar to Y franchise because of how successful Y franchise is!"

What surprises me is that, before I watched Star Wars: the Force Awakens, I had absolutely no expectations apart from it being a good, science fiction action/adventure flick. And what did I get?

Five Nights at Star Wars: a New Hope.

*sigh* let me explain...

- The film's characters are hardly given time to connect with the audience, a sign that shows how rushed the film was.

- A lot of scenes seemed to have been there just for the sake of generating "theory" videos on YouTube (I.E. the scene where Rey got a flashback sequence by touching Anakin's/Darth Vader's old lightsaber)

- Before the movie came out Both Disney and J.J. Abrams were pretty 'hush hush' when it came to the movie's details; a behavior that is very similar to that of the creator of Five Night's at Freddy's, Scott Cawthon.

- A lot of things just 'happen' without any sort of logical cohesion, which leaves behind a lot of not-so-entertaining plot holes that are most likely put there because... Five Nights at Freddy's.

- The special effects where underwhelming. I just don't understand why didn't they just recycle the cool light saber battles from the prequels (admit it, it's the only good thing to come out of the prequels. ) or just use CGI outright!

- The "fake" planets are by far the biggest insult the movie has ever given to me. Planets like "Jakku" are just plain rip-offs of the planets from the original trilogy. Why couldn't they just simply recycle the planets from the old films!? Sure, I get it, they are exploring a new section of the Star Wars galaxy, but would it kill the film crew to be creative!?

I know most of my complaints are directed at the new Star Wars film, but this is more than just about Star Wars being ruined by the Five Nights at Freddy's franchise, this is about the future of the filming industry!


I mean, could you imagine that, in order to fully enjoy a movie's story, you will have to search through many YouTube "theory" videos just to find out what happened in the film!?

I find that unacceptable if you ask me! And I think it is time we stop beating on the dead horse that is Five Nights at Freddy's!

Your real identity is Luke, and by the way, Luke, I am your Father! ;o

It's called transmedia storytelling. The plotholes are not there to be filled with youtube videos, they are there to be filled by other bits of the whole star wars shebang.
You thought you could go in and get a story? Sorry, no can do. To understand what's going on, you'll have to see the next one. And the next one.
Why pose a question at the beginning of a film and not answer it? So there's anticipation for the sequel. And the spinoff.
Also: fanfiction. Anything that keeps the audience engaged and willing to pay for toys and... More.

About creativity: nothing that would disturb the fans, please. There's a star wars game that's set 4000 years before episode 4.
All the technology is the same. Why? Because it wouldn't be star wars otherwise.
Imagine a star wars game in which light sabers have not been invented yet.

Stories like these aren't constructed as single, meaningful entities anymore, they are designed as part of a whole universe.
There'll be a lot more of this in the future, I'm afraid.


I actually teach that sort of stuff in a course on story structure at college.
I do not like where this is going though, however, I'm older than 30, so I guess I'm not the target audience, and my students have to figure out whether they want to go there, and if they do, they need to be prepared.

JJ Abrams worked on Lost,a TV show that pulled all the same tricks, and ended up just being made up on the spot with no pay offs.