I’ve never really understood the near-spastic reaction a lot of people seem to have to spoilers. This is why I’m sometimes really bad about marking for them when I’m talking about movies and the like, though I do try to be conscientious about it.
I’ve pretty much always been that way, too. I’m one of those awful people that often reads the last few pages of a book first.
Functionally, I feel like there are three general big plot twists that comes as surprises, and I just prefer the warning:
- Joss Whedon kills off my favorite character again.
- There’s a elevator through the center of the Earth. (Alternatively: it was all just a dream!)
- The bad guy is actually a good guy! The good guy is actually a bad guy! Nic Cage chews on the scenery!
I have this conversation with friends of mine a lot. Oh, just tell me the spoilers. If I wasn’t interested in seeing/reading it anyway, this is your chance to change my mind. Maybe the plot is so indescribably badass I’ll change my mind. And if I was planning to spend my time on it to begin with, I’m also unlikely to change my mind unless the plot twist is inescapably stupid. That, I’d rather find out before I’m sitting in a theater with a bag of popcorn purchased at a sob-inducing price. I’m obviously not averse to wasting my time on stupid things, but that has to be on my terms.
The ending is just the ending. The journey is why I’m there.
I wonder if maybe this is also why I love rewatching and rereading things so much. I don’t know – people who are hyper-averse to spoilers, do you do much rewatching and rereading?
One reply on “Spoilers”
I do a lot of rereading and rewatching, because I enjoy catching the nuances and little plot pieces I may have missed the first go round. But I’m one that hates spoilers–I don’t read the end first, because I want the joy of getting there. If people tell me the plot before I see it, it guarantees I won’t ever see it. After all, what’s the point if I’m spending the whole time going, “Oh, so that’s the part when…” I’d rather just see something else and enjoy the surprise.