Why do spoilers upset so many people?

Cafe Society
21

There’s also a big difference between a preview (that tells the gist of the movie and doesn’t reveal everything) and a spoiler (that exposes the biggest surprise feature of the movie.

I like previews if they don’t show all the good parts, and I try to avoid blatant spoilers if I really want to see a movie.

Yes, I have reread books and rewatched movies because the experience is what it’s all about. The ones I revisited were well made and/or made me laugh. In some movies and books, the surprise is far and away the biggest part of the experience.

I like to experience the work the way the creator intended first, then if it’s worthwhile I’ll try it again with knowledge of the ending.

Are there people out there that don’t like to ever be surprised?

22

Some people do like it. That’s the crux of why they’ll get upset; it really does change how you view the story. If it didn’t, nobody would care about spoilers. For you, knowing the character survives helps you relax and enjoy the movie. For others, knowing removes part of the enjoyment.

There are books I’ve read and re-read till they’re dog-eared because I love them and I find new things in them all the time. I’d still give a hell of a lot to be reading them for the first time again, just so I could have that “not knowing” experience.

23

But you know full well that some people believe this, whether you think it’s “over the top” or not. I understand some people like knowing all the spoilers before seeing the movie or TV show, and I think that’s “over the top” but I would not criticize them for it.

In this case it’s a matter of respect. You know there are people reading these boards who prefer not to have spoilers revealed. If reading the FAQ for the boards wasn’t enough to clue you in, you have apparently been told by a few Dopers in very strong terms about their preferences in this regard. The SDMB has even made spoiler tags available to accommodate both points of view and still have everyone happy.

So why do you still ignore this?

I read this thread because I am in the camp that prefers to be surprised as much as possible by the movie or TV show as part of the entertainment experience, and do my best to avoid spoilers of any kind, until after I’ve seen it. I would prefer not to see trailers. While I don’t take it to the total extreme of never seeing any TV teasers for next week’s show, in certain cases I do. When watching 24, for example, because that show relies on so many surprises every week, I leave the room during the scenes from the next week’s show and turn the volume down on my car radio when commercials are aired for the coming week’s show.

So, did you have to spell out your spoiler again for Buffy in your post? I am just now watching the entire run of the show for the first time on DVD’s (I’m up to season 4 now). I’m not all that upset about your “revelation” but I would have preferred it if I hadn’t seen it. You could have made a general reference to a spoiler that seemed insignificant to you, or you could have put it in a spoiler box, but despite getting “totally reamed last year on this board” you do the same thing again. It just seems to me that this demonstrates a lack of respect for other people’s preferences if they differ from your own.

Of course, you are not the only one who does this, and I know this show has been over for a year or two, so it’s not as bad as revealing spoilers for current movies. The DVD’s for Buffy even gave away some spoilers… on disk 2 or 3 out of the 6 disks for Buffy season 3, there were a couple of Bonus materials, including an interview with some of the writers and directors. When they talked about how much fun it was to blow up the school at the end of the season I was definately a bit bummed, as I would have preferred to see it happen without having the surprise of it happening ruined. Since we get the disks one or two at a time through NetFlix, we couldn’t wait until we saw all the shows before going back to watch the bonus materials.

Some people are courteous. I recently posted a thread about how to watch Buffy and Angel episodes in the correct order (as I had been told there were some crossover episodes, where things started in one show ended in another), and a Doper who posted links to episode guides warned me which ones had episode descriptions, and not to read the cast list of each year if I wanted to be surprised.

In the future, please take into account that there are people on this board who prefer to be surprised (some, as you infer, almost violently so) so if the thread title does not specifically warn of spoilers, don’t type in any without putting it in a spoiler box, so those of us who don’t want to read those specific plot points can choose without having it forced upon us.

24

Obviously, spoilers change how you experience a plot-driven work of art.

Some people find that being spoiled changes things for the better. Maybe without being distracted by wondering what’s going to happen, they can focus on the way things are happening and how the artist(s) is presenting them. Or maybe they just hate surprises.

Some people find that being spoiled changest things for the worse. Maybe the suspense of not knowing is an integral part of the experience for them, heightening their emotions or intensifying their focus. Or maybe they just don’t see the point of the journey if you know the destination.

Neither approach is wrong, but people in the spoiler-friendly camp have a lot of power to ruin the experience of people in the spoiler-phobic camp.

That’s why it’s courteous, especially with new pieces of art, to be careful about revealing spoilers without due precautions.

That’s why it’s wise of people who are really spoiler-phobic to do themselves a favor and avoid discussion of stuff that they might want to see someday but haven’t gotten around to yet. Especially since different people have different levels of spoiler sensitivity.

I’m fine with being spoiled myself, but I don’t generally seek them out. I find that knowing the answers to big questions can let me focus more on the artist’s methods than on the next plot point. But I’m pretty careful with new stuff to find out how comfortable someone is with spoilers before discussing it with them in detail. It’s just nice. I don’t feel like my way of experiencing narrative art is superior to other ways.

25

My Mother in Law actually reads the end of some books first (including crime/mystery novels), I’d suspect she’d be in the don’t-mind-spoilers camp.

What I find annoying is movie previews that give the impression of showing you the full story (even if they don’t). I wasn’t going to see “What Lies Beneath” because the movie preview was sooo long and detailed that I felt like I didn’t need to watch the movie.

26

Because quite frankly, I don’t believe in catering to the hypersensitive few.

As you pointed out, Buffy has been over and gone for over a year. The final season will have long since aired and possibly been rerun worldwide, so the entire planet has had the opportunity to see all episodes. Ditto for probably the first half of the last season of Angel. I wouldn’t give out unspoilerboxed information about the last half-dozen or so eps for the sake of people who haven’t had the opportunity to see them yet, but I consider episodes that have been aired, rerun, syndicated to be fair game. And really, the people who got upset with me for starting a thread speculating on what Spike would come back as on AtS… Sorry, that’s not spoilage. The people in other contries who hadn’t seen the ending of BtVS I understood, but I figured that it was common knowledge that James Marsters was hopping over to the spinoff what with WB hyping it for ratings. Getting angry over that is something on the order of being upset because someone told you the details of a commercial for a soon-to-be released movie and speculated about possible plot points.

I think the same holds true for movies, although because of the “video/DVD” factor I would measure the time in which plot details could be discussed without benefit of spoiler boxes in years rather than months. In other words, I would happily talk about how in The Empire Strikes Back it is revealed that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker’s father because the movie has been out on video for nearly two decades now, but if I had just seen a movie that had been released on video/DVD less than a year or two ago, I would use the spoiler tags unless there was warning in the thread title.

27

You’re the one whose taking other people’s preferences personally. That’s a lot more oversensitive than ‘Please don’t ruin my viewing experience’.

28

Sorry, Tengy, but you’re wrong. I don’t take other people’s preferences personally, and I try to be respectful of them. What I’m talking about goes beyond “please don’t ruin my viewing experience”.

When I posted the thread in question, I understood that I had inadvertently ruined the viewing experiences of those in other countries, and in time since, have been cautious about letting slip spoilers for shows within the time frame that they might not have aired in the UK, or Australia, or wherever. That’s basic courtesy, and generally not being a jerk.

But when it goes beyond that to “you horrible person, you ruined my viewing experience by talking about a cast change that has been hyped by the network for months that I have avoided knowledge of by crawling into a wine cask in the basement”, I’m not going to walk on eggshells when I post to avoid upsetting people like this.

Also, in the case of the old thread, the UK/Aussies, instead of giving me a stern but gentle reminder that the shows in question hadn’t aired in their part of the world yet, and in future I should be mindful of that, came in with fangs and claws bared because obviously I had deliberately spoiled the BtVS series finale for them and deserved to rot in aitch ee double hockey sticks for it.

That’s what I mean by the “hypersensitive few”.

29

By the way, Rosebud was a sled.

30

I don’t know about other people, but I like to use my brain to figure out what is going to happen.
If someone spoils it, then if I do decided to read or watch it (which I may not since I already know what going to happen), I’m left wondering if I would have figured out what was going to happen on my own.

I also like to be surprise and when I know what’s going to happen I am waiting for the spoiler to happen instead of enjoying the movie/book like I should be.

I watched The Village the night it opened and had accidentally came across one spoiler for it (I just wanted to for a fact that the Mocumentary, was a Mocumentory and came across a The Village spoiler. Sigh) and now I’m left wondering if I would have figured it out for myself. Instead of enjoying the movie as I would have if I hadn’t had been spoiled I found myself contemplating the spoiler while watching it. Other parts of the movie that hadn’t been spoiled, I quite enjoyed watching how they played out and trying to figure out what was going to happen. Sometimes I was right, other times it went in a completely different direction.
Now when I watch The Village again, I will get to sit back and relax and watch how the story moves along and catch things I missed the first time I saw it.

I feel this way even about movie and books that are not meant to surprise or shock

31

I don’t even really like knowing there’s a surprise ending at all, because I spend the whole second half of the movie trying not to be tricked and I always end up disappointed.

32

If you actually like having a surprise ending or plot twist spoiled, I kind of feel sorry for you, because you obviously have never experienced the thrill that such devices can cause. I guess it’s like trying to explain what’s so great about sex to someone who’s never had an orgasm.

33

I assume those who don’t mind spoilers don’t like mysteries (the literature/visual arts genre). Otherwise, I’m sure they wouldn’t be able to stand them.

34

There are people who read the last chapter of a mystery first, and then read the book from the beginning. This suits their desire to know who the killer (or whatever) is in advance and protects them from people walking up and saying “Oh, I read that, that’s the one where the butler did it”. Having been known to read endings and epilogues before the bulk of a book, I usually find it frustrating, because I don’t know enough about the characters or plot to understand the choices that have been made. Also, sometimes it is hard to get myself to finish reading the book, because i know the outcome.
The other comment that I would make is that my (mental) line for where spoiler boxes are preferrable is heavily influenced by thread title. A thread which mentions a movie in its title can have all the spoilers it wants in the contents without spoiler boxes without upsetting me. (Of course, I don’t watch very many movies, so sometimes I read spoilers especially of movies I don’t expect to see.) But in a thread whose title does not describe a specific movie or book or episode, I feel that spoiler boxes should be used more heavily. This is because common sense would not tell me that spoilers for late seasons of Buffy are likely. Spoilers for other moves by M. Night Shyamalan don’t bother me in threads like “Spoil “The Village” for me” but might in a thread on creepy movies that don’t use excessive violence for atmosphere.

35

Going to a movie, or watching a season of a TV show, means investing my time and money.

Further, I want to experience the movie from the point of view the director wants me to have. That is his/her vision for the film. I start out with no knowledge and I gain knowledge as plot points are revealed to me in the order the director decides. I’m experiencing the artwork as it was intended. If I want to see it with knowledge of the outcome, I like to have that choice.

For someone to spoil that means that they’ve wasted my time, money and – most of all – the experience of seeing a new piece of “art”.

It’s a very, very inconsiderate thing to do. One should always err on the side of caution when revealing plot points not matter how inconsequential.

Would I flip out like a ninja on someone who did it? No, but I can see that point of view a lot easier than I can see yours, Asbestos Mango.

If you can’t see why some people would be very upset by it, you’re not trying very hard.

It’s absolutely no skin off your back to add two little html tags on either side of your spoiler.

36

Me, too. Being told there’s a huge twist at the end is as bad as being told exactly what the ending is, IMO. If I mention to a friend that I’m going to see This Movie and they say, “Oh, you’ll love it! There’s a huge twist at the end!” then I feel like the movie’s been spoiled. I’ll be on edge trying not to figure out whatever twist there might be. If it seems like the movie’s going in a certain direction, then obviously it’s going to end in some other way if there’s a huge twist.

37

My own feelings frankly depend on what the work is. For instance, I had little or no interest in seeing the current movie THE VILLAGE, and so I read all the spoilers and learned how it came out. When my kids were little, and I took them to EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RETURN OF THE JEDI, I read the spoilers in advance so I’d know when the violence was going to happen, so that I could be sure that they were prepared.

On the other hand, if I’m reading an Agatha Christie (say), I want to be taken through the labyrinth of clues and puzzlement and be surprised. If I liked it, I’ll read it again to see how she sets things up.

So, for me, I prefer that people provide spoiler boxes so that I have the choice of reading them or not. I would NOT like to be told, “Oh, that one, the policeman is really the second cousin from South Africa, and he murdered the old man with two snake-venom injections so everyone would think he was bit by the snake.” Or whatever.

There is a serious question about how long after the release of a film or book or TV show, things should still be considered spoilers. I think it sort of depends. I think it also depends on how critical the information is, how much of a surprise, etc. Knowing that a character is going to die in advance can often soften the emotional impact. Knowing the “Rosebud” secret doesn’t affect the movie one way or t’other. Yeah, knowing that REBECCA’s husband didn’t really love her might ruin the “surprise” of the movie, but that’s been so well-publicized over so long a time, that it seems kind of trivial. After all, whole plot summaries are readily available.

Moderator Hat On: Do be sensitive to time zone differences for TV shows, and the fact that it might be a year or two before a popular US show is released in Europe (for instance.) When in doubt, my suggestion is add the spoiler boxes. It’s not a big deal when you’re typing up a post, and it’s better to err on the side of being overly cautious than to ruin someone’s viewing pleasure.

38

I too love spoilers, although it also depends on what it is. If there are huge twists in the end, I’d prefer not to know. For instance, if I had known the Spoilers for The Sixth Sense, the movie would have been ruined for me. When it comes to twists, I am clueless and I never guess them until they happen. I remember seeing The Sixth Sense was so fun for me because I didn’t know until the end.

I had the twist ending to Fight Club ruined for me when curiosity got the better of me and I read ahead in a magazine before seeing the movie. I’m pretty sure I would have liked the movie better had I not known the twist ending beforehand.

On the other hand, I’m glad I read the spoilers for The Village because I wasn’t too disapointed when I saw the movie because I already got wind of how bad it was earlier.

39

It’s funny that so many people are upset about spoilers, especially in light of the fact that the highest grossing movie of all time is Titanic, and if you didn’t know that the ship sinks at the end then you’ve been living in a cave for your entire life.

40

LOL, I have a german keyboard right now, so I cant touchtype anymore…and I sometimes get the funky letters ß or ä or ë =)