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[Method of Madness]

So what's everyone's take on spoilers? Do you go out of your way to avoid them, go out of your way to find them, or somewhere in between? I personally avoid them (and think people who post spoilers on social media as things are airing are rude), but that's just me.

[Aziraphale]

Depends. If it's a show I'm currently keeping up with or a movie I plan to see soon, I try to avoid them. If it's something I haven't seen yet but plan to at some point, I don't worry as much (some of what gets spoilered I either forget, or I figure it doesn't mean as much absent the context I'd get seeing what came before and after).

[TRVA123]

I don't particularly care one way or the other, I'm more into something for the artistry of the story telling.

[Zebediah]

I'm not nearly as allergic to spoilers as some people are.  I don't go looking for them, but in the modern world they are all but impossible to avoid. I'm not so totally plot-driven that a single stray detail will spoil the entire experience for me.

I'm in a Facebook group for a sci-fi author that has a pretty good rule for discussing that author's works: All discussions about a given book must be spoiler-free for one month following the date of its US publication. After that, anything's fair game and if you haven't read the book by that point it's your problem.

[LeeC]

[Welu]

I try as hard as I can to avoid them. I'm also one of those people who loves going into a show or film with as little knowledge as possible because I love getting surprised. Finding something big out does ruin the enjoyment for me even if the story telling is good, especially if it's something current. It takes out some of the emotional impact? I think there's a better word for what I mean but can't think of one right now.
I accept there is some blurry measure of time when something becomes fair game to talk about though but it still frustrates me if I hear something. Like I don't watch Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead but I want to, and when you're talking to someone and they assume you're completely caught up on a popular show and just spout information without checking if you're caught up or mind if they talk about it if you're not, that seems a bit ignorant to me. That's my issue though.

[Blue Kitty]

[Aziraphale]

It also occurs to me that a lot depends on where the spoiler falls in relation to the broader story. I knew before I saw "The Empire Strikes Back" that Vader was Luke's father, for instance, but between the storytelling and the fact that you knew there'd probably be another movie, I wasn't as mad as I'd have been if, say, somebody'd spoiled the ending of "The Usual Suspects." Also, I was eight and it was Star Wars, so...

People talk about the willing suspension of disbelief all the time when it comes to fiction. But I think there's also another suspension of sorts that goes on... one that comes with kinda surrendering yourself to the story and suspending what you know, allowing that knowledge to be reshaped or remixed by the narrative. That's why I can still enjoy something that's spoilered, and why I can also enjoy things like "Apollo 13," where I already knew the backstory long before I saw the movie.

Hope that makes some kinda sense to somebody besides me...

[explicit]

Yeah, as long as it doesn't completely ruin the movie or was obvious without even watching the movie. Like, if someone spoiled the 6th sense that'd be horrible. If someone told me the Avengers win in the end, I'm pretty sure I could take it.

[Lines]

I always ask if someone wants a spoiler, otherwise I don't tell them. Except I have accidentally let a few out, most recently was about a book I thought my friend had read and she obviously had not. Luckily it wasn't a major spoiler, just one of the highlights, so it didn't ruin it completely.

I will sometimes ask for spoilers, but usually it's if I am missing a piece of a story I only know part of or if it's a movie or book I don't plan on watching/reading but need more information on when someone else is talking about it. But if someone completely ruined the ending for something I knew nothing about and was really excited about (like seeing a list of all the characters that die in the last Harry Potter book AT the release party* ), then I get kind of mad. That's a journey I want to make myself. I don't want outside influences when I'm enjoying something unless I seek them out.

*The party was a midnight release of the book at a bookstore and after my friends and I had gotten our books, we were walking through the parking lot and there were a couple of people sitting outside with a GIANT sign propped up against their car with a list of all of the characters that died. I was so upset.

[Kugai]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQTp8Ozj1JQ

[Thrillho]

I'm like Welu in that I like to drop into things COMPLETELY cold.

This applies less to movies because I'd only be using a couple of hours of my life, so I might be interested in the setup so that I know whether I want to see it.

However broadly speaking, and with computer games especially, if it's something I already know I want to play - say, when the next Fallout game gets announced - I don't want to know ANYTHING. I want to enter any piece of art with absolutely no information so I can experience it purely, freshly as the artist intended. Bioshock: Infinite would have been a verrrry different game if I had entered it with any kind of knowledge of what transpired. In fact that also applies to the previous two, especially the first one.

These days, I am so concerned with the purity of the art that I often don't even want to hear the singles that trail albums I'm interested in, because I want to actually have the experience as it was designed. Obviously not everyone these days constructs an album as an experience, but many of my favourite artists do.

Now, this aversion to any information is largely unique to me, and I get that. But I don't think being pissed off when someone tells you a plot point of something is unreasonable. Enjoying the twists and enjoying the storytelling are not mutually exclusive. That's why I enjoy rewatching things.

To go back to my Darth Vader example from my original post - Empire is a great movie, and the first time, that plot point will be an absolute gut punch. But then you can watch the movie again, get more from the storytelling and see where it was telegraphed, if you missed anything, etc.

If you can still find something enjoyable when you've had it spoiled, then good on you, but if I am watching anything remotely plot driven a spoiler will wreck something for me. Otherwise why even watch it in order?

It's the same reason I can't enjoy prequels. I have no interest in Better Call Saul.

(click to show/hide)

I already know that Mike is dead. So I have no interest in any 'new' events that transpired before the main show.

I already know where these characters end, and while I may be interested in where they began, there's no jeopardy whatsoever.

[pwhodges]

On the whole I'm more likely to read or watch something I know a bit about.  Spoilers don't trouble me in the slightest.  I often read or watch things multiple times, after all.