Do spoilers actually bother you?

[Rend Blackhand]

I really enjoy spoilers, they don't make the moment less magical

[George Costanza]

No. I am not that emotionally weak.

[Sliske]

No. I am not that emotionally weak.

This post says otherwise.

[Deleted]

For some shows, spoilers are killers - for others, less so. With Game of Thrones, for example, I watched the first season on TV then read the books. I didn't feel any worse for having later seasons spoilt by having read the books. I guess it's the dialogue and action that is such fun in that show, even if you know spoilers. Walking Dead is similar.

With the Killing - a whodunnit - I inadvertently watched the first 5 minutes of season 4 on Netflix before realising I'd missed season 3. It was awful then watching season 3 knowing who did it. I think crime shows like Breaking Bad would be pretty weakened by spoilers - yes, it's sort of predictable towards the end, but a lot of the joy of that show was the twists and turns of Walt's new career.

[Blueobelisk]

The only person I've ever set to Ignore on this forum or ever anywhere was because they posted a spoiler to a video game I was hyped about. You can curse me, argue with me, talk bad about me, and to be honest I don't really care. But spoiling something inappropriately is horrible.

[Elbruho]

I don't really care about getting exposed to spoilers tbh

[Nellise]

I mostly hate spoilers when they show up in unexpected places. If I'm reading about the Daredevil series and haven't seen it yet, I expect to see some spoilers. But if I'm reading about Daredevil and someone says what happens in Arrow or the Flash just because they're also comic book shows, I get annoyed.

[Kyr]

I prefer to encounter spoilers on my own terms, so I can understand the frustration when you unintentionally get spoiled.

If you go searching for information that's not really a spoiler, that's more like research. my definition of a spoiler is when it is posted or said in an inappropriate place where there are people that might not want to know about it.

[Ciddy]

They don't bother me too much. I actually find a story (particularly with TV shows/movies) more enjoyable if I know what's coming, because the things leading up to the big event make more sense.

[cubby]

Yes, they absolutely bother me and most other people. That's why they are called spoilers - spoil isn't a happy word.

[alduron]

Yes, they absolutely bother me and most other people. That's why they are called spoilers - spoil isn't a happy word.

I think "most people" is an overstatement, but for the people it does bother it REALLY bothers them.

[Arrowstormen]

Hate spoilers, I firmly believe the less you know about a movie going in, the better. These days, trailers often reveal things that should not have been revealed. Terminator Genisys and Ant-man are recent examples of this.

[eschatological]

Hate spoilers, I firmly believe the less you know about a movie going in, the better. These days, trailers often reveal things that should not have been revealed. Terminator Genisys and Ant-man are recent examples of this.

I definitely agree. The journey in a narrative is important, and jumping to the end, or the climax, affects the story in a Heisenberg principle kind of way (IE, you can't know the end and approach the beginning the same way).

Like, take the newest Terminator movie. The main plot point was spoiled IN THE TRAILER. I remember watching it in the movie theatre, already knowing what would happen, and thinking, "Man, this would blow my mind if I didn't know it was coming." And, in fact, it did blow the mind of the people I was with who didn't see the trailer. And they thought it was a much better movie than I did - so you have to wonder if there is some correlation (I obviously think there is).

On the other side of the spectrum: in high school, I went on like a 3 week camping trip I came back, and the first thing that happened to me was a friend came up to me and said, "Dude, you have to see this movie, the Blair Witch Project, and you have to see it now." He didn't say anything else about it, and back in ''99, we didn't really google everything before we went to see it. I went to see it, and was scared out of my wits cause I had no idea that this was the pioneering movie in a genre we now call "found footage" movies where things are shot documentary-style under the premise of being real but are completely scripted. I came out of the movie and said to my friend, "Holy shit, I'm never going camping again. Jesus fuck," and he looked at me strangely and said, "You realize this is just a fictional movie made to look like a student documentary, right?" And had I known that going into it, it wouldn't have been the same experience. I've watched it since then, and roll my eyes and think about how cheesy it is.

[OrcsRLame]

Yeah, spoilers annoy me pretty bad and I generally go to great lengths to avoid them.

[Deleted]

What bothers me even more than spoilers, which bother me to no end - they absolutely ruin stuff for me, are people who don't understand what actually constitutes as a spoiler.

I have a few friends, unfortunately, who are going to say something about a movie or an episode of a TV series, and then go "well that's not important." Yes, it is. It's all important. Every single event in an episode, or in a movie, is important, and if I know it beforehand, it will ruin other events in the movie, and make me anxious and cause me to wait for it to take place.

Even when they go like "Ohh there's this one scene in the movie...well, you'll know it when you see it!" or something, it partially ruins the experience, because now I'm stuck in my own head thinking about what it was that they meant, while I should be completely immersing myself in the experience.

Sigh... The truth of the matter is, though, that some people aren't able to watch movies and TV series properly. They're not able to detach from their lives and immerse themselves in the movie, and thus they have no understanding of what it is to ruin that experience for others. People who do a million things while watching, for example playing a game while watching an episode, or talking to people, or fiddling with their phones and so on, or people who go into the movie or episode ready to analyze it to death every single second of it...those are the kinds of people who are completely unable and uninterested in fully immerse themselves in the experience, and thus, they can't understand what a spoiler does to people like us who live and breathe movies and TV.

The best experience is had when you have no knowledge of what's about to happen, you've not analyzed the upcoming movie or episode of a TV series beforehand, you've shut out all distractions from your life (people, gadgets, games, noises - I use headphones actually so as not to have to suffer any outside noise pollution, having to go to the toilet, hunger, and so on), you're relaxed and not stressed about anything, you can fully shut down all thought and detach from life, and when you're fully immersed in the movie or TV series.

Having even a little tidbit of information about what's going to happen can ruin that experience and not have it be the best possible.

Also, as an aside, all of the above is also a good explanation on how some people who think they're "critics" don't actually know jack what they're talking about. Some people just think that as long as you're watching a movie, you're a good movie watcher, and thus can criticize the experience. Nah. More often than you'd believe, those missing stars and points from movies that some critics take away are due to them ruining their own watching experiences because they're simply not good at it.

[Duravian]

I'm in general not bothered by spoilers at all, unless they are very detailed.

If someone tells me that a character is going to die, instead of being outraged and feeling the movie/whatever is ruined, i'll start wondering HOW he dies. Is it after a majestic battle with a sudden betrayal from within? Did he trip over a snare? Did he make an enormous self sacrifice and explode in fancy fireworks?

So, yeah, not usually bothered. In fact, i am highly sensitive to characters i LIKE dying (guess why i do not watch GoT and win a cookie), so knowing this beforehand actually allows me to somewhat prepare for the character dying and thus i won't be lying sleepless thinking "why did this have to happen?!"

Doesn't mean i am not bothered by some spoilers, though. Detailed spoilers are horrid, don't tell me everything! But just getting to know simple stuff like "X dies" or "They'll go that way" does not usually bother me.

That's what bugs me though. I speculate all these endings and if it turns out true, it's just an "oh gee what a surprise" or else it's a letdown. There's just no pleasing me

[Powerogue]

Absolutely. There's no surprise if you spoil the climax of the film. Clips and whatnot won't kill it, but spoiling the ending is the worst.

I can see where you're coming from with clips and the like. I only ever watched Frozen because the "Let It Go" song and a couple of clips were on youtube, which instantly sparked my interest on where the story was going. (She's the queen? Of what? What was she running away from? What's this conflict between her and her sister?) It just built until I had to see it for myself.

[Doctor Amadeus]

No, not at all, because how something happens in the story, is just as important and sometimes more important than the end result, nobody actually goes to most movies NOT knowing how it will turn out.

[Xerra]

I'm not bothered at all. To the point it baffles me why others throw tantrums when something is spoiled. I like pleasant surprises but seriously if you don't want to accidentally find about something then avoid communication via word of mouth or internet. You might as well bury your head in the sand as chances are someone knows something about something, and someone else wants to know that something asap. I try not to disclose something though opening for a few weeks unless the area discussing it is specifically about it. But even with friends I got by the idea that if a video game or movie has been out for over 3 months and you still haven't experienced it then you really weren't that invested in it to begin with so I don't care.

For example I will toss some randoms out. "Crono dies in Chrono Trigger but comes back, if you use the strategy attack weakest in Ogre Battle 64 you will probably get one of the crappy endings, Goku never beats Beerus to a pulp in DBZ Battle of Gods." Just some random stuff that if you havent experienced those yet well the world isn't going to whisper and be hush hush for your convenience.

[Adam Jensen]

Kinda, I was a bit miffed when Netflix showed that Frank Underwood becomes the President, or in an episode description of Agents of SHIELD, says that a particular villain, Daniel Whitehall, dies. And more stuff to make the black bar bigger

I mean, it would have been so much more interesting to not know and allow these things to be revealed in the show. It would have been a much greater impact to see that particular SHIELD episode without knowing what happened.

But sometimes, knowing what happens makes you anticipate seeing it more. This is especially from one medium to another (from book to show, as an example.) I was totally HYPED to watch the Red Wedding when Season 3 Game of Thrones was aired and my god, it was still devastating, even though I read the book before the season came out.