Executive Meddling/Literature: Difference between revisions

** In the ''[[New Jedi Order]]'' novel series, Anakin Solo was killed halfway through at the insistence of [[George Lucas]]. Lucas had decided that since there were prequel-era novels starring Anakin Skywalker being published at the same time, and Anakin Solo was set to be the main hero of the second half of the ''NJO'' story, [[Viewers are Morons|readers would be confused by both eras having a main character with the same first name]].

*** Later events made fans theorize that George Lucas realized that he had virtually identical stories for Anakin Skywalker and Anakin Solo (hope of the Jedi Order, deep connection with the Force, skill with technology, and oh yeah, a ''fall to the Dark Side that plunges the Galaxy into war, destroying a republic''). So in the end, they killed off Anakin Solo and gave his fall to the Dark Side plot to older brother Jacen.

** Heinlein's ''[[Podkayne of Mars]]'' originally ended with the title character killed by an explosion as a direct consequence of the plot and her personality. His editor forced him to change it to an ending where she survived, albeit critically injured and in a coma. The existence of the original ending was a well-known bit of Heinlein trivia but no one knew exactly how it had played out until the publication of a special edition with both endings.

* ''[[Harry Potter]]'': The first book, ''[[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (novel)|Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]]'', was meddled with to become ''... and the Sorcerer's Stone'' in the United States. Executives argued that kids "[[Viewers are Morons|wouldn't want to read anything with 'philosopher' in the title]]". (Some even argued that Americans wouldn't know what a philosopher was.)