The politics of online spoilers

[matgb]

One of the things that always bugs me online is different peoples reactions to plot 'spoilers' for media things—unpredictable and at times downright weird, as Nick Mamatas demonstrated last month. Now me, I tend to seek them out for shows I like—before the internet I had a subscription to SFX partially for the spoiler zone section, I loved reading about shows way in advance and knowing what would happen. But then I tend to rewatch stuff I like a lot anyway. So, inspired by this old poll at nmg's, I thought I'd update it a bit.

Warning though, below the fold are some minor spoilers for recent films such as Iron Man, Harry Potter 5 and Spiderman, and also endings/character reveals for Hamlet, Sixth Sense, Citizen Kane, the Star Wars trilogy, Soylent Green and Fight Club. Nothing is revealed that isn't on this classic t-shirt but if you really are that averse, just scroll to the last question...

[Poll #1199471]

Obviously some things, like the end of a genuine mystery, are worth hiding if that's how it's written—knowing who did it never seemed to hurt my enjoyment of Columbo though, and a chunk of my reading is always history books where, y'know, I normally know the ending. It's not what happens that matters to me, it's how—I'm there for the ride, not the big splash at the bottom. You?

Comments

[innerbrat]

I am lilmsmiraclegro there, sorry.

There are two types of spoilers - reveals and surprises. Reveals would be Psycho and Fight Club; surprises would be Harry Potter and Hamlet.

For me, the spoiler magnitude is based on how much the shock value should be. You're supposed to be shocked like Luke is to find out that Darth Vader is his Dad. If you already know your empathy is entirely dependent on Mark Hamil's acting which is why no one my age or younger really cares any more.

Tony Stark/Peter Parker is just the progression of the story; there's no moment of oh, he's the hero! so there's nothing to spoil.

And that's why they're called spoilers after all: they spoil one's experience as an audience. Fight Club is a big one for me - I remember what it was liek to have that reveal, and anyone who is spoiled won't experience the film the same way I did in that first watching.

Also, dude: HARRY POTTER 6. Not 5.