Uh huh. I spoiled it. So, what, now you’re not going to bother seeing the next two movies, because they were “spoiled” for you? Bullshit. You’re going to see them and enjoy them just as much as you would have even if you didn’t know that Gandalf was alive. And why is that? Because it’s not a spoiler! Christ, is it so hard to understand that not every minor surprise in a movie is a “spoiler”?
I’m kind of surprised, actually, that no one’s come along and argued that there’s a second spoiler in LOTR, which is that
Eowyn disguises herself as a man so that she can ride with the army, and she kills the lord of the Nazgul. While you can make a strong case for this being a spoiler, I really don’t think it is, because we’re not even told that there IS a “lord of the Nazgul” until just before he dies. So while it seems major, in the grand scheme of things, I don’t think it’s all that important, plot-wise.
Anyway. I was trying to make a point with my list of spoilers above, which is that there’s a statute of limitations on these things. All the spoilers are for movies from the 1980s or earlier, and you know what? The pleasure you would derive from seeing these movies is not diminished by knowing the end in advance! The journey is the reward! So get over yourselves and stop calling every minor revelation a “spoiler”.
Incidentally, it was brought to my attention that I erred, Rhett does marry Scarlett, he just leaves her at the end. I’ve never seen the movie. But, when I do, knowing that won’t affect my enjoyment one bit.
Well, whatever. As I’ve said previously, I didn’t really want to rant, just to politely ask. I have now done so. I expect that those people who care about common courtesy will respect my request, and those who don’t, won’t. I’m not losing sleep over reading spoilers in thread titles in the Cafe, but it’s kind of annoying, so that’s why I posted this.
I’m bowing out of this thread now, as it seems that people are physically incapable of not posting spoilers in it.
You don’t get to decide how much pleasure I derive from seeing a movie, or how much that pleasure is diminished by having part of the plot revealed beforehand. Only I do.
It’s a reasonable request. The books have been there for ages, but a lot of people are reading them now and that’s a good thing, isn’t it? And some of those will enjoy them a lot more if they don’t know what’s going to happen next.
Just be polite and TRY not to post spoilers in THREAD TITLES, for crying out loud.
I have never read the books, but I’ve seen the movie once. In the movie, nobody ever says ‘Gandalf died,’ in fact they make a point of the elf-lady saying ‘he has fallen into shadow.’ Maybe there’s something more elaborate in the book, but who, from this deliberately vague plot device, automatically assumes that he’s dead? It seems like an innocent enough prod to encourage the reader/viewer to think for him/herself.
If you go to a movie or read a book as an escape from thought, so that you may just be buoyed along by whatever surface story the artist throws at you, then I can see the frustration with those of us who are ‘inconsiderate’ enough to spoil it for you.
Excellent point, Shade. Like in “Friends”, when Joey is reading Little Women, and Rachel spoils it for him, and Ross points out that Joey has never read a classic before, and do you really want to take any pleasure of it away from him?
Here’s what I don’t get: Regarding the OP, I hear you loud and clear. Don’t post details about a book/movie/play in the thread title. This allows a person to decide if they want to enter it or not, based on their level of interest or fear of spoilers. Fair enough.
To the other people who complain about “spoilers”. Isn’t the Cafe Society a place for discussion about a book or movie? If you are still reading the book, why are you reading a thread about it? If you haven’t seen the movie, stay out of a thread about it. I mean come on- if you’re in a forum dedicated to discussing different works, don’t you expect some information to be given back and forth about it?
I agree, not in the titles, but in the thread itself, fine. It’s a discussion. Is everyone supposed to put whatever they want to discuss in “spoiler” tags so you don’t read it?
Max, why don’t you go play in traffic or something. Your posts in this thread have been some of the dumbest words I have seen pop up on this board, and I normally read thru some really dumb shit on here.
For those of us that watched the movie, and saw Gandalf fall to his death, it would have been a nice suprise to see him pop back up in the next flick. You see, when you take something that is supposed to be a suprise, and ruin the suprise, you have fucking SPOILED it. Hence the word “Spoiler”. No surprise for me now.
Just because you are some sort of uber dork who has the 3 books memorized from reading them over and over on your many dateless nights doesn’t make it old material to the rest of the world. So why don’t you stop practicing your elvish tongue on your dog and get a life you fucking inconsiderate moron.
Why would you assume that? And even if it’s true – that the prompt for picking the book up is the buzz about the movie – why would you assume she’s seen the movie already? A lot of people don’t want to see the movie (any movie) until they’ve read the book.
This is all assuming the person you’re talking to has seen the movie, of course.
Why? Because you say so? If a person hasn’t read the book before (or seen the movie, or whatever) what difference does it make if came out last month or 100 years ago? She hasn’t read it. And who died and made you the arbiter of what is or is not a spoiler? Surely the death of a major character would qualify under any reasonable definition. And, by extension, so would the resurrection of a major character.
She said, “Please don’t put spoilers in thread TITLES.” I fail to see why that would be considered an unreasonable request. It certainly isn’t some major plea for accommodation. And she made the request civilly, so even if you disagree, you don’t have to be so damn snarky about it. Sheesh.
Oh sweet magical sky pixie, deliver me from human ostriches who would not know sarcasm if it fucked them up the ass while singing “It’s Raining Sarcasm, Halleluja”…
I’ll try again, and for your benefit I will grunt out an explanation in your language, using no words longer than one syllable: there more like film than shocks. I don’t know that I can make it any more simple.
Bullshit, I spoiled nothing. First, because it is at best a minor surprise and in reality a fucking cliché. It’s no more a spoiler than revealing “a lot of people get killed in Friday the 13th!” Second, the books are so old, accusing someone of “spoiling” anything about them is ludicrous. Guess what, it turns out Arthur is the one who can pull the sword from the stone! Hope I didn’t spoil the surprise for you! Third, the advertising for the films themselves includes the very tidbit that you claim I revealed. Fourth, I am not responsible for indulging your quirks. If you want to bury your head in the sand, fine by me, but I don’t have to help you shovel. And fifth, what the fuck, you only go to the movies for the surprises? That’s pretty sad.
This is without a doubt the stupidest comment that has ever been addressed to me. Let me see if I have this little scene you’ve painted correct: You, the twerp who is so deeply emotionally invested in the LOTR books that hearing one future event destroys your worldview and evidently reduces you to tears; you, the scab-picking dingus who never picked up that heroes tend to win in fantasy books; you, the drooling cretin who somehow managed to fool himself into believing that Ian McKellan was running around promoting the second movie for his health or something, you somehow borrowed the testicular capacity to accuse me, someone you don’t know from Adam, of ruining your book-reading pleasure? Let me educate you on a few things: I don’t even own a dog, I’ve never read anything of Tolkien’s besides the trilogy and The Hobbit, and I wouldn’t know “elvish tongue” if it were whispered sensually into my ear by my very beautiful girlfriend. You might want to look in the mirror and reassess which one of us is the “uber dork”.
Here’s one for the road: in the last book, the king returns.
Oh sweet magical sky pixie, deliver me from human ostriches who would not know sarcasm if it fucked them up the ass while singing “It’s Raining Sarcasm, Halleluja”…
I’ll try again, and for your benefit I will grunt out an explanation in your language, using no words longer than one syllable: there more like film than shocks. I don’t know that I can make it any more simple.
Bullshit, I spoiled nothing. First, because it is at best a minor surprise and in reality a fucking cliché. It’s no more a spoiler than revealing “a lot of people get killed in Friday the 13th!” Second, the books are so old, accusing someone of “spoiling” anything about them is ludicrous. Guess what, it turns out Arthur is the one who can pull the sword from the stone! Hope I didn’t spoil the surprise for you! Third, the advertising for the films themselves includes the very tidbit that you claim I revealed. Fourth, I am not responsible for indulging your quirks. If you want to bury your head in the sand, fine by me, but I don’t have to help you shovel. And fifth, what the fuck, you only go to the movies for the surprises? That’s pretty sad.
This is without a doubt the stupidest comment that has ever been addressed to me. Let me see if I have this little scene you’ve painted correct: You, the twerp who is so deeply emotionally invested in the LOTR books that hearing one future event destroys your worldview and evidently reduces you to tears; you, the scab-picking dingus who never picked up that heroes tend to win in fantasy books; you, the drooling cretin who somehow managed to fool himself into believing that Ian McKellan was running around promoting the second movie for his health or something, you somehow borrowed the testicular capacity to accuse me, someone you don’t know from Adam, of ruining your book-reading pleasure? Let me educate you on a few things: I don’t even own a dog, I’ve never read anything of Tolkien’s besides the trilogy and The Hobbit, and I wouldn’t know “elvish tongue” if it were whispered sensually into my ear by my very beautiful girlfriend. You might want to look in the mirror and reassess which one of us is the “uber dork”.
Here’s one for the road: in the last book, the king returns.
Jodi, you know I gots tons of love and respect for ya. However, I just plain don’t agree with you here. When a book or movie reaches a certain age (there’s no real ironclad rule about what that age is), there is simply nothing to spoil. And I don’t think we all need to keep mum about how Moby Dick gets Ahab in the end just to satisfy the few who haven’t read it. The thing is, even if you know that going in, the book isn’t ruined. So, why the hell NOT talk about it openly?
I’ve just grown tired of people always saying “spoiler” this and “spoiler” that. I stand by my assertion that not every little surprising thing about a book or movie “spoils” it for you. Simple as that. And a lot of people here don’t seem to get that concept.
Max - have you heard of the concept “Your mileage Might Vary”?
Just because it doesn’t spoil it for you, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t spoil it for some one else.
some folks take their coffee black, some use sugar. ya know?
and all she’s saying is don’t put it in the damn thread title. She knows not to open it up if she doesn’t want further info. But if it’s in the title, she’s got no choice about seeing the info if she as much as opens the forum.
that is an eminently reasonable request.
It defines ‘reasonable request’.
What you seem to be saying, is that you’ll post what you want, how you want, including plot points in the thread title, even if you know some people might not appreciate it, 'cause dammit, they should have read it before or whatever.
Now, yes, of course, you’re free to do whatever you want.
but to complain about some one’s reasonable request? yea, you’re free to do that, too.
And we’re free to think some one bitching about a reasonable request is acting like a jerk.
Ok brown eye, I don’t know any other way to spell it out for you than I already have. I already said I haven’t read the books and I have no intention of doing so. These movies are entertaining me the same way Aliens, Clerks, and Ghost did. They are new to me and I enjoy being suprised. For all I know Gandalf could be showing up in flashbacks or a spirit ala’ Obi Wan or some shit. I sure as hell didn’t know he lived. AFWIW, aren’t these books only like 50-70 years old or something? It’s not like we are talking about Shakespere or some shit here.
I’ll bet your “very beautiful girlfriend” came with a patch kit incase you poke a hole in her “skin” with your little pecker during those nights of rough sex.
Max Torque, you know I’ve got respect for you and Stinkpalm I don’t know you from…well…a palm that stinks, but you two are slinging around more pointless barbs than a rusty 90 year old cow fence.
Both of you are so idiotically on extreme ends of the spectrum I’m surprised you haven’t come full circle and collided into each other again. If you were both here, I’d shove you both so far up each others assholes you’d be french kissing.
Max Torque : kind sire, you are an asshole. I have never before seen a more inconsiderate piece-of-shit than you. People like you should be banned not only from message-boards but life itself. Just because you don’t like being surprised in movies doesn’t give you the right to spoil other people’s pleasures.
If it is too much trouble for you to keep your fucking spoilers out of the thread-titles than don’t. But you don’t have to belittle people about it. By the way I have seen dog-droppings that make more sense than you. Goat-felching dog-breath.