I’m going to break form today. I need to take a step away from the gaming table for a few minutes and talk about a certain epidemic that seems to be getting worse and worse as I grow older and television shows and movies that would at one time have been “nerd shows” find their way into the living rooms and calendars of more and more people.
And that epidemic is spoilers.
It started for me with the release of Star Wars Episode VII. It was the first time that I legitimately felt the need to stay off of social media in the few days before I saw it. I didn’t, but I was as careful as I could be perusing Reddit and Facebook up to the day of. I was lucky. I was able to walk into the movie without having any of it spoiled for me. Others weren’t so lucky. Groups of people for whatever reason were trolling the net spoiling a character death in the days before its stateside release.
More recently it happened to me with Captain America: Civil War. My Facebook feed had thankfully been pretty chill about not spoiling anything in the film. But I did have one small (or rather large) piece of the movie spoiled for me, but it was couched as a pun and the only reason I understood it was because I knew enough about the characters to read between the lines of what was being said.
Most recently it has been happening with television shows like The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones. The last few weeks it seems that people can’t go more than a day (if that) without having whatever shocking thing happened on the Game of Thrones spoiled for them.
Confession time – I haven’t watched Game of Thrones since the end of Season Four, and I was never able to watch it live, because we chose not to pay for premium cable. But I have been a fan of the book series since I discovered it 15 years ago in high school and devoured them. I loved the world building. I loved the intricate history and cultures. I loved the complex and nuanced characters. It was a breath of fresh air for a long time fantasy nerd that was getting kind of tired of black and white good versus evil fantasy stories. I knew the show was about to pass the series in terms of content. I knew that the show was different enough that some things would undoubtedly be different. But I also knew there were a lot of things that would hit the same thematic notes. I thought that I would be able to walk into Winds of Winter when it was published and still be able to enjoy it. I knew that I probably wouldn’t be walking into it spoiler free, but I figured I would be able to avoid the majority of them.
And in the last few weeks, I’ve been proven wrong at every conceivable turn. Hell, I even had a character’s death spoiled for me before the episode even aired after the script leaked online. And as each shocking revelation was spilled before me in all of its glory, I realized a sad truth – I didn’t really care when Winds of Winter was coming out anymore. Yes, I’m sure some of it has to do with the length of time that it has taken to get the next book out. I waited the decade between books four and five with breathless anticipation, and I’ll admit that the constant wait for book six is starting to wear on me as well. But the greater part of it is people that feel the need to spoil the show, and thus the forthcoming books, for those that haven’t yet seen it. I have to wonder how many others this same thing has happened to. And yes, I’m sure my tune will change when we get a release date and the book is in my my hands, but man; for a long time fan that invested a lot of his time and energy into the series, that was a fairly gutting realization to come to.
I know it happens innocently some of the time – people are genuinely excited about the show and want to share that excitement with others. Social media is a great way to get instant feedback from other people that enjoy the same things you do and so it gets posted without you even thinking about it. But the fact is that by doing so you have potentially spoiled the show for other people on the same social media platforms. Your feed doesn’t exist in a bubble, and even if a show is a worldwide phenomenon, there are more people than you realize who aren’t or can’t watch it live for whatever reason. And then there are the memes and references that follow in the days to come that get shared around everywhere for days and weeks to come reaching an ever widening audience of people who may have not had the chance to see the episode that is being referenced.
But what gets me more fired up than anything is people who defend the act of posting spoilers. In a discussion about spoilers that had been posted about the Game of Thrones season finale the night it aired, I saw the exact following defenses about being posted:
– “25 minutes is a long enough time to wait before posting spoilers about a show.”
Nevermind that the spoiler in question was posted well before this supposed benchmark, but 25 minutes isn’t even long enough to start digesting a meal, much less spoil a TV series. It’s the equivalent of walking out of a movie on opening night and telling the people shuffling in for the next showing what’s going to happen.
– “Don’t read my Facebook, you know it’s risky on Game of Thrones night.”
That’s not how social media works. There are two ways that I know of to ensure I won’t see posts from you on Facebook. One is to mute you entirely. The other is is completely remove you from my friend list. And just because we aren’t friends doesn’t mean that I might not still see your posts if we have friends in common. That’s how Facebook works. You don’t exist in a bubble. If you insist on talking about a show while it’s on the air, then at least use Twitter, where I’m pretty sure I can still just mute you for a hour at a time.
– “It’s Game of Thrones/Walking Dead/[other popular show]! People die all the time! How is knowing who dies and how they die make that fact any different?”
If I need to tell you how this is different then I’m wasting my time with you.
– “I don’t care enough about the show. I’m going to say what I want.”
What you’re telling me is that you don’t care enough about other people’s thoughts and feelings about something that they’re obviously passionate about. What you’re also telling me is that you don’t want to be included on my social media anymore because you are a walking violation of Wheaton’s Law.
I have to ask you. How hard is it not to post a spoiler? It’s one of the easiest things that you can do. You quite literally have to sit there and do nothing. But why do people insist not only on doing so but feeling like they’re correct for doing so? Unfortunately I don’t know if there is an easy fix for this. Some people just don’t care about the feelings of others, and they like to get their jollies by ruining the fun of others. But call it out where you can. Don’t stand for people being dicks to others. It’s just not cool. And more importantly, own up when you make a mistake. It happens – we’re all human. And most importantly, try to continue to love what you love and connect with others that love the same things. Sometimes it’s the only defense against those that want to dampen that love.
Ben Erickson
