andrewducker (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
andrewducker) wrote2009-07-15 10:49 am
andrewducker) wrote2009-07-15 10:49 am
Spoiler Discussion - (spoiler free)
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!
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!
no subject
For example, I consider Torchwood: Children of Man to be a spoiler dangerous thing. While it's been broadcast in the UK already, it won't be shown in the US until next Monday, and I imagine other parts of the world have not seen it yet, either. There has not been enough of a reasonable amount of time to have passed for people who would want to see it to do so. So, don't spoil it for the rest of us.
Now, the finale of BSG broadcast months ago. You could argue that people who wanted to see it have by now. It has also been commented on in the press, in public forums, and I think anyone who wanted to know what happened already does. So, spoilers are acceptable.
Also, if something has been around long enough to where the spoiler is part of popular culture (like the ending of Citizen Kane, the "secret" of The Crying Game, or the end of Empire Strikes Back), then it's ridiculous to consider it a spoiler anymore.
no subject
If you tell me the twist, ending, or other significant information about a show I have not seen, then you are spoiling it for me.
If I have not seen the Crying Game, then telling me the secret is spoiling the movie for me. There are many movies I have not seen, because my time is finite. I cannot think of a reason why you would want to spoil movies for me. Can you?