Last week was fun, and Rambo did a good job. But enough frivolity, it's time to get back into thinking mode. What am I going to blog about today?
Spoilers.
That's not to say that telling you what my topic is is spoiling. Rather, today's topic is spoilers.
Personally, I don't have much spoiler-phobia. Spoilers aren't really all that scary for me. I have no problem looking up the ending to a TV series on the internet before I've finished it. Spoilers just don't bother me that much. Maybe that's because I'm impatient, or maybe it's just that I want to know if the story is worth my time before I invest in it for 7 seasons (or whatever the case may be). I listened to a podcast recently that talked about how a story should hold up on its own with or without the ending being known. I thought that was an interesting concept and thought it was quite good.
There's just one problem with that: my mentality.
See, if I know about a big twist that is coming, I tend to look forward to that and ignore the presence of the story in front of me. I've always been a bit of an idealist, looking for how things should or could be, and missing the thing that lies directly in front of me. It's the same way when a character is killed off. If I know a character is going to die, consciously or unconsciously, I will disconnect from that character and end up having the death not impact me (or impact me less).
So, even though I haven't been much of a spoiler-phobe up until now, I've been trying to become more of one. Though, I guess that is just one of two options. I can either avoid the spoilers and allow the twist to impact me (or death, or what have you) or I can throw myself into the story regardless of whether I know how it will end or not.
Still, the podcast was right: a big twist at the end should not be an excuse to allow weakness with the style of the storytelling. The twist just allows the author to make a bigger impact in the mind of the reader.
What are your thoughts on spoilers? Are you against spoilers, or are you able to enjoy a story regardless of whether you know the ending? Comment below with your thoughts!
It would depend on how invested I am into a certain series, as to whether or not I would look at spoilers. For example, I have no qualms looking at spoilers to Sherlock or The Walking Dead, because I don't watch them. Harry Potter, back when it was just coming out, I will admit that I intentionally looked at the back of the Half-Blood Prince, only to find out that Dumbledore was dead.
ReplyDeleteThat was a mistake.
On a weird note, the way that I entered the Doctor Who universe was because of the spoilers. I was first attracted because of the Dalek Emperor and the Bad Wolf Scene (which was a spoiler). Then, I started jumping around Youtube watching every spoiler-y scene on the Doctor Who Franchise possible. It was after I had exhausted most of the good ones, that I honestly started watching the series.
So, sometimes spoilers are terrible, and sometimes they're good.
That's true. I will look at spoilers for things I am not watching. And some spoilers are not bad. However, sometimes they can detract from the experience of the story. Of course, some spoilers can be helpful in gaining interest.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment!