Spoilers: That's the Subject

[cyharding]

If this belongs to the film and video subforum, please feel free to move it.

Earlier tonight while I was at work, I listened to a segment on CBC on that nature of spoilers (you can listen to it here) since the finale of Breaking Bad aired yesterday. The guests raised some interesting points such as whether or not we should hold things back for the sake of other people. So I'm interested in hearing from you what you think about spoilers and how to treat them when it comes to movies and TV shows you watch and I don't mean here on EGF.

[Ornette]

This all reminds me of that Portlandia skit. But it's really pretty simple. When in the company of others who haven't seen something, just don't talk about it. If you haven't seen something that others have, ask them not to talk about it. If it's more of an internet/media thing, I avoid it entirely. I usually can't even be on the internet until I've watched my recording of an F1 race for fear of seeing someone mention something about the results. It's obviously a little trickier when it comes to online socializing and dealing with spoilers compared to being face to face in a social situation. But if you really cared, it's trivial to stay away from the wrong places and only converse with your friends.

[Agentomega]

Usually if I want to talk about something, I'll say "hey, do you mind if I talk about (insert topic here) and possibly refer to spoilers?" If they don't care proceed. If they do, I drop the subject and pester someone who has already partaken in (insert topic here).

A recent example: one of my friends doesn't have cable, so she asked me not to say a word about Agents of SHIELD, not even if it was good or not. Upon starting the show (being excited about it), I intentionally logged out of chat knowing I would totally say something.

EDIT: my stance on spoilers and the Internet is that there will always be sources of spoilers. Therefore, it is simplest to just avoid the main sources for spoilers (Facebook, tickld) until you have seen it. When posting spoiler-riffic things (if really necessary), either include spoiler tags or say "hey, I'm about to spoil something from (insert topic here), so don't look at this post".

'Nother example: 3.33. Managed not to ruin it for myself because evageeks is awesome at compartmentalization and spoiler tags. Ended up watching it after my thesis was done.

[Paranoid]

Being spoiled generally won't ruin the experience for me, but depending on how much I'm looking forward to it, it may slightly lower my enthusiasm. If it's not something I really like I generally won't care about spoilers. Sometimes people will talk about movies I haven't seen around me, and I won't even mention that I haven't seen them yet because I don't care all that much.

Unfortunately, sometimes it is something I'm looking forward to, and spoilers might be difficult or even impossible to avoid. I'm currently somewhat in a bind with the third Madoka film; I won't be able to see it in the theaters since it isn't going to be shown anywhere except Japan, France and the US, and avoiding spoilers is going to be downright impossible since I regularly browse /a/. Unlike with 3.33, a US theatrical release for Madoka means that /a/ is going to be absolutely flooded with spoilers and speculah for months. I'm just going to have to learn to accept it, I suppose.

[Mr. Tines]

The only time I can recall spoilers ruining or even diminishing anything for me was with Madoka, which was all about the tweests, and was nothing without the element of surprise -- but then I often check out the closing pages of a book as part of seeing if I am interested, if it's not by an author I buy sight unseen, just to see how they might fumble the premise.

[Sailor Star Dust]

Spoilers don't ruin my enjoying a story (book, film, video game, whatever) but I do make a point of avoiding spoiler sources so I can experience the story on my own. I don't want other sources to influence my judgement about whatever I'm watching or reading.

In the case of 3.0, I planned on avoiding spoilers until BDrips came out, but Ornette's "I don't envy spoiler-free people at all" post got me too curious to stay spoiler-free. I think I only lasted a day of being spoiler-free, if even.

[Katana]

I've read NGE spoilers long time ago before I actually watched it. Still, every time I give glance to it I feel the flames burning inside me. I can clearly tell I've never experienced such a beautiful feeling in my own life.

[Paranoid]

The only time I can recall spoilers ruining or even diminishing anything for me was with Madoka, which was all about the tweests, and was nothing without the element of surprise.

I can see how being spoiled might hamper one's enjoyment of the series, but I've got to say that I enjoyed it just as much on rewatches as I did the first time around. IIRC, Xard liked it even more his second time. I don't think it's "all about the tweests" at all.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

The way many Hollywood films today are constructed, "spoilers" usually only refers to what kind of over-used cliche or trope the movie will unsurprisingly throw at the audience. It's not like learning that Darth Vader was Luke's father the whole time anymore. I mean, sure. Technically that's a trope that can be used in a cliched way, but that changed everything about the character dynamics. Learning that Khan was the villain in Star Trek: Into Darkness was completely underwhelming and changed nothing in the story, especially since that exact kind of movie has already been made, with the "spoiler" character's name already in the movie's title.

The same thing kind of goes for when Bagul's head moves in a still image in the movie Sinister. Not only was that shot "spoiled" in every single trailer for the movie, but it was the only trick the filmmaker's had in making the villain interesting. But it's a real catch-22 as well, because it's also the only thing that movie had going for it that separated that film from the other horror flicks of that year. So they couldn't omit it from the trailers or no one would have been anymore interested in seeing that movie over any of the other ones.

[Aiko Heiwa]

I try not to spoil stuff relating to TV shows, movies, or books when said thing is still fairly recent.

That being said, if it's over like 5 years old, I will spoil it because you've had 5 years to watch it.

[Chuckman]

I like spoilers. To me, Breaking Bad is a comedy show about a guy who throws pizzas on roofs, has a sexy female sidekick named Jessie, and flights black terminators who own chicken restaurants. It's more entertaining than watching the show and more compact then spending hours of my meaningless life staring at a television.

[Guy Nacks]

I never post spoilers to a show that I watch, but I do usually post my reaction to those shows without revealing any scenes. The most recent of which being my extreme disappointment with the Dexter finale and how the series just became the biggest television equivalent of blue balls.

[AR-99]

I pretty much spoil myself with most anything, anime, movies, books, that I'm curious about. I'll read the plot synopsis on Wikipedia or find the relevant wiki and read in-depth info. When I come across books in the store I'll go to the last pages to see if the MC died. Even when I'm reading something every now and then I'll flip ahead to see how an event resolved itself.

[pwhodges]

I have no issue with spoilers; the full detail of a story is so much more that I don't get a sense of having lost anything by merely knowing the outcome or some plot twist.

[C.A.P.]

^What he said.

[CJD]

I wouldn't say spoilers outright kill things for me, but they definitely lower my enjoyment of the series, and my desire to plow through it. If I know what happens it's much harder for me to scrape together the interest and energy necessary to watch/play/read something. It's like yea I could do that, or I could work on a story that I don't know the ending too.

The thing with spoilers is, there's a certain overwhelming feeling one gets (at least I do, I assume others do too) when a major plot point happens, that sense of euphoria or dread depending on the nature of the spoiler. If I experience it as a natural part of the story then I associate that feeling with the story. When someone asks me for my thoughts on it, that feeling is reflected in my opinion. On the other hand, if I read the spoiler beforehand, then I don't associate it with the story at all. Instead of being a small part of the overall experience the spoiler revelation is now an entirely separate, disconnected experience from the story itself.

[MisatoCrush]

As I started watching EoTV I started looking at Eva wiki pages, like Evageeks.

Huge mistake!

I totally spoiled 2 massive plot lines.

That Rei is a clone.
And that Shinji's mother is inside Eva 01.

I really really wish I hadn't stumbled onto that information.

I wonder how my enjoyment of the show would have changed if I had not spoiled anything.
I'm pretty sure the death of Rei II would have been much more emotional for me.

Frakkkk! Why did I spoil it!

[NemZ]

Eh, it depends on what is being spoiled. There have been times I wish I'd been spoiled because then I'd have known in advance not to waste my time with something that was just going to turn into concentrated stupid. Also very few things that are worth spoiling actually diminish the effect because there are just a lot of incompetent writers out there for whom 'twists' either make no sense or were completely obvious much earlier.

[heavytread]

When it comes to spoilers I go with if it's a year old or older and is considered a classic its fair game

[Chainsaw Owl]

Geez, I'm bad with spoilers. I have this habit of heavily wiki'ing anything I'm even slightly interested in. Hence, I knew everything that would happen in the Dune series before I even bought the first book. It was sort of like being plagued with my own version of prescience.

But hey, it's my own damn fault. You can lead a crazy horse to water, but you can't convince it not to drown itself.

Surprisingly, I'm pretty good at keeping spoilers to myself. Except stuff like A Song of Ice of Fire, which is so massive that I tend to mix up stuff in, say, the third book with stuff in the fourth. I recently got a friend to read the books, but I refused to discuss it in the slightest until she had read up 'til A Feast for Crows.

Well, except to laugh knowingly whenever she would come by, distraught over the latest character death.