Friday, August 2, 2013

Do SPOILERS Spoil Your Day???

I see a lot about spoilers online, people handing them out like candy while others complain they don't want to see that stuff.  It ruins the entertainment (book, show, movie, etc) for them.  What do you think about spoilers?  Are you the type who craves them?  Or are you the one who jumps on someone else for ruining the story for you?

Me?  It all depends on what we are talking about.

Reality Shows:  I must know as soon as possible what is going to happen.  This guy who calls himself Reality Steve has been sued over putting up spoilers about The Bachelor.  In fact, the lawsuit is what brought this guy to my attention.  Now I read his blog all the time.  I WANT to know who the bachelor is going to send home before I see it.  Before I discovered there were spoilers of my favorite reality shows I was stressed out while watching them.  There were times when I refused to watch a show anymore because the people on there had me SO upset I couldn't take another minute of it.  But if I go into it already knowing the outcome, I feel much calmer.  

Movies:  Sometimes I want to know and I will ask a friend who has seen it because I am not sure I want to watch the thing.  But then there are other times when I don't want to hear anything.  When there is a mystery to be solved or a major twist, I want to figure it out for myself.  A friend actually ruined a movie I was really looking forward to seeing.  I'd waited for months for the release.  Then he saw it first and couldn't keep her mouth shut.  She blurted out the big twist and 'SPOILED' it for me.  I didn't even want to watch if after that, and I am still mad when I think about it.  There are so few movies I get excited about.  I feel like she stole what could have been an exciting moment for me, whether I'd figured it out for myself or not.

TV shows:  Supernatural is my favorite show, but I don't get the CW channel so I have to wait an extra week and watch it online.  Because I cannot wait another single second to find out what happened, I search for and read detailed recap.

Books:  Sometimes I want to know, especially if I am on the fence about reading a certain book.  I'd heard there was a big twist at the end of The Demon's Lexicon, so I asked what it was before I read the book.  It didn't spoil it for me.  I enjoyed knowing and looking for the clues. 

My books:  I hate it when people SPOIL my books for others and possibly cost me sales.  This is because I go through a lot of work, agonizing over every little detail to keep people from guessing what the twists are.  There have been a few times when people have given away the ending of my book on Goodreads and once on Smashwords, and I had to have the whole review removed.  Yes, I know this makes me a bit of a hypocrite since I like to skip to the endings of books sometimes.  I can live with that.  :)

So what do you think?
Does it bother you when someone puts a spoiler without writing SPOILER ALERT above it?
Do you seek out spoilers on some things?

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