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April 14, 2013

Stop the Spoilers

Okay, so I might be a bit biased because a lot of elements of my WIP are very, very spoilable. Also, since reading TFiOS and hearing John Green's take on spoilers, my opinion of them has only gotten stronger.

I have this weird quirk that when I'm watching a TV series (it's always been a TV series, and almost never a book for this particular quirk), I go to Wikipedia and I look for spoilers for what's coming in a particular episode or later in the season. I'm not sure why I do this--part of it is because I am TERRIBLE with suspense in TV shows. I freak myself out enough as it is, so I tend to scare easily, especially when I know something should be scaring me soon. It's bad. I can't handle it. So I spoil myself. Another reason is because I get really impatient and I just like seeing if everyone I like ends up ok.

I am not everyone. I don't know anyone else who does this (although others like me must exist, or else all of this probably wouldn't be documented on Wikipedia/related sites).

Here's the thing about this quirk of mine, though. I ACTIVELY looked for these spoilers. They were not thrust in my face unexpectedly. I looked for them.

I firmly believe that this is the only way people should be exposed to spoilers. If they LOOK for them, whether that be through actually reading a book or seeing a movie, or by searching for whatever they want online. I do not, in any way, condone people commenting with spoilers for no reason whatsoever.

Which is why reading the comments for this particular video just now royally pissed me off:



I've embedded it here so you don't have to see the comments. But this, obviously, is the teaser trailer that was just released for the second installment of the movie versions of Suzanne Collins's series The Hunger Games. Which is SUPER EXCITING AND WHY IS IT NOT NOVEMBER ALREADY?

BUT.

There are people in the comments section of this video posting spoilers of what happens to certain characters, and certain elements of the plot that are particularly spoilable. I saw two comments right next to each other that justified this spoiling by saying things along the lines of, "They should have read the books first. It's their fault they're too lazy to read the books, so they're just going to watch the movie."

This is NOT okay.

Just because you had the privilege to read a book series first, that, in no way, gives you any good reason to ruin the same experience you had for someone else.

This is a sentiment that I heard reiterated with The Lizzie Bennet Diaries in the year that it was being posted, but there are new people reading a book/series or watching a movie every day. Reading something before someone else does not give you special rights. (If you think you do, you're probably one of those people who comment "First!!!!! OMG" on a YouTube video, aren't you? Even when you're the 5,000th?)

Think of it this way: Are you better than someone (fundamentally, not smart-wise or age-wise or whatever-wise) just because you were born a minute before them? An hour? A decade?

No, you're not. Not really.

There are people growing up every day. There is a six-year-old out there today who will read The Hunger Games or Harry Potter or Pride and Prejudice for the first time in a few years and delight in it. Your kids will want to read those books or watch those movies, too. Can you imagine the spark in their eyes when the puzzle pieces finally fit together in their minds? How their eyes fill with tears when certain things happen to certain characters?

No, you can't imagine it. BECAUSE THEY KNOW WHAT HAPPENS ALREADY.

Slight kidding aside--seriously, guys. Don't post spoilers. Especially not in YouTube comments, or any other commenting place, unless it's a place that's okay with for that kind of thing.

In a world that is constantly releasing new entertainment content alongside the old, you do not get to claim the title of Spoiler Dispenser just because you think you're some sort of entitled hipster. The only title you'd get is gigantic jerkwad.

I think we'd all feel better if you opted out of that particular job description.

Thanks.

Cross-posting this (with some slight differences that I'm not transferring over here) to my Tumblr.