Spoiler Discussion - (spoiler free)
Jul. 15th, 2009 10:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrewduckerIn 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
Date: 2009-07-15 04:27 pm (UTC)In that case discussing it without spoilers should be trivial!
I want to be able to talk about stuff with my friends, and maybe they haven't experienced it.
Ok. So you have a want (talk about stuff), and they have a want (to experience stuff without knowing the plot in advance). Possibly some sort of discussion about things might be approproate rather than you just prioritising your wants over theirs?
no subject
Date: 2009-07-15 05:05 pm (UTC)And as for my attitude about talking about them with my friends, I let friends prioritize in the same way, and they do. I specifically tell people when they ask 'do you want spoilers' that 'sure, I don't mind firewalling' and don't give them crap if they don't ask me beforehand. It isn't a matter of me getting what I want over what they want, it's a matter of redefining the nature of the discussion entirely.
Plus, think about the last film you saw where a spoiler really ruined it for you. I cannot think of one for myself. I can think of a few where the spoiler made me not want to see the film, because I now knew it was crap, but that seems to be a running element in spoiler discussions. If the spoiler is enough to ruin the film experience, chances are it wasn't a good film to begin with. And is it worth the lack of discussion to hold back on spoilers for sub-MST3K-par films?
no subject
Date: 2009-07-15 06:01 pm (UTC)So you do use spoiler warnings :->
I'm fine with people asking me - I'm happy to be spoilered for various things that I'm not going to see anyway :->
no subject
Date: 2009-07-15 06:12 pm (UTC)My point is not that I'm going to run roughshod over your spoiler concerns, I'll still ask. I just think that they're pointless and get in the way of things, and that if you get something spoiled and it's old, big deal.