[Spoilers] Interview with S9 writers Sam Vincent & Jonathan Brackley

[HellsBells]

An interesting interview.

Were you concerned about how the audience would react to turning a lead character bad?

“Not half! We knew there was dedicated core of Lucas and/or Richard fans who would want our heads on sticks. But you have to balance that against the desire to deliver a big, unexpected, shocking story and do something really ambitious - like turning your alpha male hero into someone else entirely.

So basically they didn't care what Lucas fans thought of their storyline, they just wanted something big. If writers stop caring what parts of the audience think about the show, they may risk people not watching.