Chris Savino has commented on No Such Luck after 6 years of silence. The comments weren't long; they were criminally brief, and he couldn't say much for legal reasons. However, he did answer a question that's been bothering myself and plenty others, such as GylmarGeniusCat and TheChaosTheorist:
"Did Lucy Loud think Lincoln was bad luck in No Such Luck?"
Because of those aforementioned legal reasons of not having the rights to the show, he could not give us a proper conclusion/sequel or a definitive exploration of anything behind the scenes... but he and his wife were definitely being cheeky about it with giving answers/non-answers that legally are "safe" but clearly nudging us in a certain direction of what their actual opinions are. More on that in a moment.What question was he answering? The short story is that, at various points, people realized that Lucy never actually called Lincoln bad luck in the episode itself. This is not an opinion either, you can and triple-check yourself:
https://theloudhouse.fandom.com/wiki/No_Such_Luck/Script
You can rewatch the episode yourself as well. I don't know why you'd punish yourself like that, but you absolutely can if you wish.
There could be many reasons why this is the case. Perhaps it was a total oversight (most likely). Perhaps the episode's writer knew that Jessica DiCicco would be doing quite a bit of work as Lynn in this episode and deliberately wrote few lines for Lucy. Perhaps there's nothing to it at all because plenty of vastly less infamous episodes have certain sisters saying no lines whatsoever. Whatever the case, what ultimately matters is the outcome: no matter your opinion on this, it IS the truth that Lucy never actually called Lincoln out as being bad luck. In fact, her last line in the episode is the giant collective "No!" when the sisters respond to Lincoln asking if they're kidding about his room's door being locked, and once that plays out, Lucy's role in the episode is effectively finished.
One such conclusion from this is that Lucy never actually believed Lincoln was bad luck.
In the case of TheChaosTheorist, the mad lad actually went and rewatched NSL over 50 times just to find any flaw in that argument. He couldn't. In fact, rewatching that many times reinforced his opinion that there was something odd about Lucy's role in NSL. In an episode all about fortune and luck-- a force with which she has repeatedly been shown to be very adept at dealing with-- she not only makes no comment to Lincoln but even in the actual on-screen composition never acts or behaves in line with the rest of the family, this despite doing so in other episodes. Why did she tell Lincoln he was locked out of his room? Even that makes sense if she didn't think he was bad luck: Lincoln did still threaten Lori's whole future prospects by busting her golf clubs in an attempt to keep his lie going, a lie Lucy clearly saw through. So in that regard, it shifts from her thinking Lincoln was bad luck and shouldn't have his own room to her thinking he was being a selfish jerkass and should sleep on the couch instead. Not altruistic, obviously, but far less psychotic than the original reading. And considering she has no further lines, roles, or reactions, one could read anything into what she actually did after that point.
So this raised the genuine question of if Lucy might actually have not believed Lincoln was bad luck after all. What was once a stoner thought in the Annus Horribilis was reignited.
Normally, such a detail as insignificant as this wouldn't even warrant a second thought. But considering the sheer overwhelming infamy of No Such Luck, it couldn't be ignored. I sat on it for 3 years, and now I regret it.
We know that Karla Sakas, the writer of the episode itself, has lamented the way it turned out and blames Chris Savino for it, pinning all responsibility on him. We couldn't get in touch with her because it's actually impossible to do so apparently, but indirectly we were told she did not feel she could provide an actual answer because Savino was to blame.
This was formally reinforced when we asked one Jared Morgan, a storyboard artist on the Loud House who confirmed that Chris was the one calling all the shots and had full control over how the episode turned out. If there was anyone we had to ask on the topic of No Such Luck, everyone was pointing the finger at Chris Savino, the show's creator and episode director.
So we did. And honestly he was already our first choice anyhow, but this reinforcement did bolster our motivation.
By pure chance, Chris Savino is actually reachable. After going underground following his harassment accusations in 2017, he only appeared in scattered amounts over the next few years, mostly to upload his comic "For Brothers" to his personal website. Apparently one person tried getting in touch with him to talk about some other episode back in 2019-2020 to no avail.
But he reemerged last year as "Christian Car Rides" on YouTube and, earlier this year, on Twitter. That's how we were able to finally find him. I found his email, and from there spread it to the others, to no response at least at first, so we tried Twitter. That was far more successful. His wife Ian said that if their YouTube (or Twitter) reached 1k subscribers, they'd make a video addressing this question. So we went about telling our friends/groups/Discords/Twitter followers/4chan/Loud House encyclopedia/whatever to at least consider subscribing. They didn't have to stay forever (though it seems plenty did). I'm convinced one jammy bastard probably paid someone to boost subscribers further, but I have no proof. And it worked, and so we got this response.
This is the first time in 6 years anyone involved in Nickelodeon (past or present) commented on this episode. It's not the overwhelming response we were hoping for, but it at least addresses the central question that was bothering us.
The Magic Question
Q: Did Lucy Loud think her brother Lincoln was bad luck?
A: No.
Savino agrees with our assessment. She didn't say anything; she's already well aware of how luck and fortune works; she has a good relationship with Lincoln. So she didn't buy it.
This alone was a good enough answer, though admittedly not perfect because it still opens the door to a second question: if Lucy didn't think Lincoln was bad luck, why didn't she help him?
See, the thing about Lucy's non-role in NSL is that it's actually so open-ended that it genuinely does leave that chance wide open that she could have done something behind the scenes to help her brother.
All anyone was really asking for was any statement that she at least protested to her family that what they were doing was wrong. She didn't have to succeed. As long as she at least said something.
But here's where the Savino's dropped a much bigger bombshell on Twitter.
TheChaosTheorist asked if, it wasn't possible to say anything definitive for legal reasons, could they at least imply she tried to help.
The answer...
https://twitter.com/christianCrides/status/1685098294899322881
If the image doesn't come up or if you can't read English and need this translated:
"I believe it's implied. If he ever got the opportunity to make an episode from Lucy's perspective, I believe she would be the hero...and we would watch her save Lincoln/ the episode as a whole."
This was completely unexpected.
Even in the video, Savino expresses interest in an alternate perspective episode following Lucy, but now there's confirmation that he supports the "helpful Lucy" theory.
Legally, he can't say Lucy definitively did this. But that's precisely why we're reading between the lines here (much like how the whole saga started). What is Savino actually saying?
Not only did Lucy not believe Lincoln was bad luck, not only did she try to help him behind the scenes, but apparently if you followed her perspective, she outright plays a heroic role in helping Lincoln when the rest of the family totally turned on him and was the reason the family stopped believing he was bad/good luck.
What that role entails, we don't know. Again, Savino can't make any statement on it that's "official."
Chris Savino might never actually work on the Loud House again, but that's no obstacle.
Similarly to how this whole saga started, I did manage to find the email of one Kyle Marshall, the co-producer of the Loud House at the present moment. Furthermore, he seems to have been more active online than most other staff on the show (who all infamously retracted after Savinogate, scrubbing almost any way to get in contact with them). Michael Rubiner was our first choice, but he hasn't even been seen online since before the Pandemic, whereas Marshall at least shows signs of life. We still can't 100% ensure he'll respond or take any of this serious, but if he does, that would effectively be "official" recognition. Plus he would not have any legal reason to not give a behind-the-scenes take or conclusion.
In fact, having Savino make these statements boosts the chances quite a bit. For all of Savino's infamy, the cold fact is he is still the show creator, and as others pointed out, the director and sole responsible bearer for this episode which has gotten way too much attention at the expense of so many other better ones.
So if "official" commentary is what you need, it really is just a matter of waiting and seeing how it plays out.
But if Savino's words alone are sufficient, then this is the most significant update to No Such Luck in years: the creator himself gave total approval to see Lucy not as one who betrayed Lincoln but perhaps as the only one who tried to help him.
Depending on how you see things, this is either finally settled or 80% of the way there. The only checkpoint left is to get an official Nickelodeon-backed answer.
Still, even if Nickelodeon staffers never respond themselves, the implications of Savino's words alone are quite the sea change from what we had grown used to.
For six years, Lucy had been seen as one of the villains of the episode. But now the show's creator has just said she was actually the hero.
This actually raised a very good question, and here's where NSL fanfiction can finally play a good role again: "what does saving the day look like?"
If Lucy was trying to help Lincoln behind the scenes and apparently succeeded (considering "Frog Wild" still has to happen and everything went back to normal), what exactly happened? What did Lucy do? What was Lincoln's response? What did the family do? How did Lucy manage to get them to stop mistreating Lincoln? What was the response of those around the Louds, like Clyde or the Santiagos or the Louds' friends?
TLDR: Chris Savino came out of hiding to say Lucy wasn't acting a fool in NSL at after all, also casually """implied""" she actually saved the day, but all this happened off-screen and we don't know how it happened because he can't legally make any new story. Nick staff might have their own comments, so it's another waiting game
I just want it all to be over and done with. No more No Such Luck. God. I want this whole saga to be wrapped up before Christmas. Let's get some real comments so this episode can finally die!!