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Get thread context failed the silent age12/16/2023 ![]() He is still the one who will face those questions during interviews, he may even want to answer, but the executives above him may have forbidden him from answering certain questions and an evasive answer is still better for the audience than a plain and rude refusal to answer at all. Orders from above: Sometimes the writer is not the one who has the final word over the work and everything about it.Although it might be cool if the author would just make up answers on the spot to questions about supporting character #23's favorite pizza topping, you can hardly blame the author who doesn't. Sometimes, the question is about some detail completely tangential to the story which the author(s) never considered. For example, they might honestly not remember what they were thinking when they wrote that particular bit, or they might be just making it up as they go, and have no more idea what's going on than any of the viewers. The creators shrug because they genuinely don't have an answer to the question. Sometimes, it's the entire work that is tricky, with creators wishing that they never wrote it and are trying to just pretend it never happened. Fending off attacks by Moral Guardians (or worse, shippers) may require a shrug when the question is (and it frequently is), "So what were Alice and Bob really doing while off-camera after that UST-filled scene?" A truthful answer to such a question would result in people screaming for the creator's head on a chopping block no matter what the truth is because there are two sides of the issue note For example, in the case of the "What were Alice and Bob really doing?" question, if the answer is "Yes, they were having sex" then that would get people complaining about the show/movie being inappropriate but if the answer is " No, they weren't having sex, it was just made suggestive as a joke", then people who ship Alice and Bob might get mad at the writers for not making their favourite ship canon. The plot point may have sparked enough debate in the fandom that any answer will cause a Broken Base, or the issue may be particularly heated due to having religious, political or otherwise controversial implications that the authors would really rather avoid (such as "Does God actually exist in this setting?"). Maybe the possible answers to the question are sufficiently controversial that coming down on either side will provoke a backlash. ![]() ![]() ![]() ( Sheesh.) Some may firmly believe in the Death of the Author theory and not feel their interpretations are any more valid than anyone else's. Even if the answer isn't out there, creators may still want the fans to come up with their own answers. Maybe the creators don't want to say anything because the answer is actually hidden within the work and they want the fans to be attentive and uncover it for themselves (or don't feel that they should have to just give up the secret willy-nilly considering all the hard work they did to cleverly interweave it into the narrative). They want you to find your own answers.Some creators may enjoy leaving ambiguity intact because they just like watching their fans squirm. They may think that overanalysing things detracts from them, disliking meticulous Fan Wank and its older brother, overzealous, full-time, academic literary analysis. Creators may think that it's funnier that way, or that it's scarier that way, or that ambiguity feels realistic (because Real Life isn't perfectly neat with no mysteries). Maybe the plot point in question was supposed to be ambiguous or senseless. Alternatively, they may wish to stop other people from writing about it, such as when they try to enforce a Fanwork Ban by not handing people information which would be more useful to fanfic authors than to anyone else. If so, they won't want to give the answer away yet. Maybe the creators plan to address the point in an upcoming installment/spin-off/revival/etc., or at least want to retain the option to do so. Instead of an answer, you just got the Shrug of God: author(s) intentionally not answering a question about their work.īefore you get angry at them for being evasive, remember that they may have a reason for their ambiguity.
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