Spoiler Discussion - (spoiler free)

[andrewducker]

In the last couple of days I've been in discussion with a couple of different people about spoilers. One of them about BSG season 2 (now two years old) and the other about HP:Half Blood Prince (now four years old), with them considering that as they'd experienced them years ago, they couldn't possibly be considered spoilers.

Which is the exact opposite of how I feel about it. Because there are movies I still haven't seen fronm the 1950s, where discussion of the twist in the tale would spoil the movie for me. And I'm very aware that the majority of people who go to see the new HP movie won't have read the book.

To me, spoilers are all about politeness. If you tell someone the end/twist of something they didn't know, and will possibly experience in the future, when they didn't want to know, then you've spoiled that experience for them. I remember the feeling of watching Empire Strikes Back and discovering that Han and Chewied were lovers. The shock and surprise at the moment of reveal was an integral part of the experience for me, and taking it away from people that haven't seen the movie yet is just plain rude.

Now, you can argue that it being years old, the chances that people on your friends list haven't seen Empire Strikes Back is low. Which is true if you're posting friends-only and have nobody under the age of 20 on your friends list. But it's not like the olden days, when a movie would appear, and then vanish again, when TV that had made the rounds was lost. Nowadays I can go out and buy box sets for TV made before I was born, and watch it entirely fresh. There are more hours of TV and movies out there than I have time to watch in my whole life, and the chances are that some will be watched years out of synch with their original release. And I'd really appreciate you not telling me the details before I do!

Obviously I consider all of the following to be spoilers. I'm curious whether you do too. If you don't then I'd love to know why...

[Poll #1430090]

Also: NO SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS!

Comments

[natural20.livejournal.com]

*maybe* the end of BSG because it's so recent, but while technically everything else is a spoiler, I'm very much of the opinion that if you haven't seen/read/heard/whatever the piece in the 2 - 400 years it's been out, really, it can't matter that much to you, can it? If you really cared, wouldn't you have made the time to have experienced the story in some way?

This may be seen as harsh, but having experienced a wide range of reactions to spoilers over the years, my tolerance for such things is extremely low.

[andrewducker]

it can't matter that much to you, can it?

Yes, it can. I have a finite amount of time to watch TV in. Julie and I just finished watching Babylon 5, and she'd never had the opportunity before, while I had seen chunks of it, but not managed to get someone to watch it all with me before. I cared a _lot_ about it, and would have been very upset to be spoiled for lots of it.

[broin.livejournal.com]

How much time? Are there not books and movies you've been meaning to catch up on...?

[natural20.livejournal.com]

There are, but if I was really worried about being spoiled then, considering the information age in which we now live, I'd prioritise it above other stuff.

That said, and andrewducker will see this too, I will admit that a) my initial comment was a little harsh, for which I apologise, but b) this also stems from me not really caring all that much. There will be other stories, thankfully lots of them and I still gain great enjoyment from re-experiencing stories I already know the end of, spoilers simply aren't a concern. I do, however, acknowledge that not everyone thinks the same as me. That said, I will never apologise for revealing the end of something like Hamlet or Star Wars or the like.