Endgame, Game Of Thrones, And The Peak Of Spoilers Culture

The culture of the spoilers – the speech of the capital-D on the part of the plot to know before moving to a media – reached its apotheosis with the release of Avengers: End of the game and the Game of thrones episode "The Long Night". The fury around the spoilers is such that it is quite possible for a man to discuss aloud the plot of End of Game in public would be attacked.

Spoiled or preserved people are a determining factor for the appreciation of a work of art. There are separate camps for fans who like to know everything and fans who want an experience that involves not knowing anything, and completely separate media spheres to meet the needs of both. Contamination of one camp by another "ruin" experience in a way that destroys any possibility of enjoyment. If it's a cultural battle, spoilerphobes win it.

For a while, I was in charge of io9's Morning Spoilers, a place where we would gather all the news that was not quite worth their job. He was titled morning spoilers. It was in the banner. There was a warning spoiler before you clicked. The tags list all the properties that will be discussed below. And people would be again in the comments about reading something they did not want to know. This would happen in publications describing film trailers, which linked publicly available information, knowledge of sources, and some speculation based on how stories work to understand what was happening. Everything was clearly labeled. And people would complain again. This behavior – the claim that almost every descriptor of a new program, movie, or game ruins a person's experience – is now commonplace.

The definition of "spoiler" is so extensive in recent years that it encompasses just about all information pertaining to an element of pop culture. If the title vaguely indicates that it is a "spin", it is a spoiler. Because now you know that there is a twist. For example, a character's movie or TV show takes place after End of Game spoils that a character does not die, even if the studio has published this information voluntarily. Attaching positive or negative adjectives to a title on a movie is a spoiler. "Oh, there's a" big "scene with Captain America's spoiler." All information, even the promotion of the studio designed to excite you and put you in the right frame of mind for a job, is now a spoiler.

It would be one thing if it were only fans who complain in blog comments. But their perspective is specifically taken into account. "Spoiler-free" or "spoiler-filled" labeling journals have increased slightly. However, the purpose of a review is to tell you whether or not you should spend your money on something. And it can mean spoiling something by warning people that there is a point of conspiracy that is not working or that is downright offensive. And that can mean writing about things so good that you can not recreate them in a criticism. A spoiler-free criticism becomes at one point a series of hyperbolas designed to be scrambled into an advertisement of the giant conglomerate behind a property, or to destroy a work that is not good with the most invective that can be leveled. The nuance does not exist because the nuance requires data. A critique is an opinion and writing around the idea that all factual information is a "spoiler" will weaken it to the point of becoming useless.

Being spoiled and having a ruined film are not the same thing. I'm staying a tweet Last week, I sent: If knowing what happens in a movie ruins it, the movie was not good. The twists and shock value are crutches, and a competent media organizes these things so that they do not really out of nowhere, but rather organically from what we already know about the characters. The execution is more important the fact of the twist itself. Otherwise, it would be useless to look again or re-read something, or even to see a movie or read a book rather than just view a detailed summary of the plot on Wikipedia.

If you are spoiled, you may have a different experience, but the worst is simply a matter of opinion. And giving such importance to not being spoiled – to the point of trying to dictate where and how others talk about the film – is preparing you for failure. You still have to live in this world, and if you get angry if you learn something about a movie, then you ruined this movie for yourself.

Maliciously spoiling people is not cool, a point so obvious that I did not think I had to talk about it, except that people thought that was the meaning of my tweet. This was not it. It was to reassure people that a movie is ruined by a) being bad or b) being in the wrong place for the movie. Not knowing what will happen.

I had the death of Han Solo in the force awakens It ruined me and it bothered me a bit to know something that I just did not expect. That said, when the roll started and the film started, I stopped thinking or worrying about what I already knew. Because there was something in the feeling of this movie that had me sucked, and even though I was aware of what was coming, I was still affected by the scene because I was invested in the bow of the characters that the film had established.

(And, yes, there will be at least one comment, hopefully stuck forever in the grays, on the part of someone who complains that I just canceled Han Solo's death for people .)

It is important to have a perspective. Hunting a complete ignorance, is to chase away the feeling of childlike innocence. What is the brutal behavior of fans trying to force movies to feel like children again? If there is one thing Star wars fandom proved over the last year, that's it.

And finally, the purchase in the culture of the spoilers must be played by the brands. Brands are co-opting fans at a relatively steady pace now. Sure both sides of this fight. It is not unusual for broadcasts to have official hashtags and encourage video conferencingbecause turning television into an event is like encouraging people to watch it live. This makes the advertisers happy.

For movies and plays – where the same thing is shown over and over again – playing with spoilerphobes creates a mystery that can only be solved by buying a ticket at the same time. in advance and by viewing it as early as possible. It's incredibly disgusting that one of the officials End of Game hashtags – with an exclusive fun emoji! – was "#ToSpoilTheEndgame". even more rude that the directors of the film have posted a letter arguing for the same thing, so as to explicitly name specific activities of fandom, then to affirm real fan involved do not talk about it.

J.K. Rowling shot a similar trick for the Harry Potter to play The accursed child. The previews were accompanied by the hashtag "KeepTheSecrets" and, again, portraying some fans as traitors, "#DontBeWormtail. Here's my own spoiler alert: The secret was that the story was zero.

The accursed child proves that information about the plot only ruins something that fails on all levels. The script – which was officially released only a month after the previews and this hashtag – tells a story an atrocious story. But the execution saves him. If you're a fan of the series and want to know where your favorite characters are, you'll be furious. If you go with reasonable expectations about the seriousness of the plot, his show will give you pleasure. Keep the secrets, though? This simply allowed Rowling and his company to hide the flaws in the script longer.

The fandom and "nerd" culture has become a big business, not just a niche concern. Even though the vast majority of people behind End of GameThe gigantic opening weekends are just regular fans, companies play with hardcore fans, knowing that they are a) a revenue base that will always appear and b) a secondary source of income for things like toys, books, conventions, etc. It means encouraging behavior that makes no sense when it's no longer "just" a comic book event, confined to comic book stores and the drawbacks of comics, and where people really love can organize their experience. But you can not have both, whether as a fan or as a gigantic studio. And, finally, it does not matter. Decide whether to accept either "it's a cultural moment everyone has to participate in, whether they want it or not" or "I'm a real fan, and god help you if you're in any way disturbing that either in reality "I built & # 39; means disappointment. At the very least, it's a waste of time and energy that just makes you more unhappy.

Let people experience what they want. The most polite thing to do before engaging with them to ask them what they want. Even if it means spoiling them, some people are even less anxious than they enter.

And if you have not harassed others for your own problems, but have just taken reasonable precautions, you always come across information that you prefer not to have, everything will be fine! Breathe. It is always worth visiting even if you have been spoiled. And if that's not the case, it was not so good at first.

Being a fan is not an experience that a brand or creator can dictate. It's not even something other fans to come to dictate. Enjoy things as you like them. It's a fandom.