Spoilers

When you access Facebook or any site containing memes, you will get the feeling that the entire world revolves around the immensely popular show "Game Of Thrones". Of course, that means that people will talk about the past episode. There has, for instance, been a friend of mine with a status update which was literally nothing more than "X happens to Y", where Y is an important character in the show.

I love Game Of Thrones! I love it so much that I don't watch it right away. I'd rather watch several episodes in a row because it would allow me to pick up on smaller things in the plot that I would otherwise miss (I'm a goldfish like that). Because there have only been two episodes of the new season so far, I did not in fact know that X would happen to Y.
I've been meaning to call my friend with the aforementioned status update out for spoiling me on that, but first I want to know if I even have an argument against her.

The main problem is that "A Song Of Ice And Fire" is quite old, and the story has been "out there" for quite a while. I'd be willing to bet a sizable amount of money that my friend would use that against me if I accuse her of spoiling me. "Go read the books then", I can hear her saying.

I find this bullshit. I should be allowed to enjoy the story at my own pace and in the format I desire. I hardly read any fantasy books because of their tendency to describe every single setting in detail, and doing so in an excrutiatingly static manner. I've heard, from several people who have read the books, that "A Song Of Ice And Fire" is really no better in that regard. Plus, I'm a slow reader, so I might as well focus on stories that are unlikely to ever get an adaptation.

Upon discussing the Harry Potter movies (of which I did read all the books), I'd always ask the other whether or not they've read the books before mentioning something that could be a spoiler. I call this "common decency" (aka "good form", aka "politeness", aka "manners").
I understand that shutting people up about the subject would be too much to ask, which is why I won't. Unliking the GoT page on Facebook when the new season began was a very deliberate choice of mine. There are plenty of possibilities to discuss what you just saw without involving people who haven't watched it yet though. Notice the word "discuss". What's the added value in just blurting out "X happens to Y" anyway?

To end my rant, I'd like to ask you the following questions:
1) Am I allowed to complain even when the story itself is older? Am I at least making sense as to why I didn't jump at the story first chance I got?
2) When is something still a spoiler? What would be an appropriate time frame in calling something a spoiler or not?
3) Is it all just me, and should I get with the program and just watch the episodes as they are released?

Feedback is appreciated, as always.

 

This is my spoiler code:

• Each version of a story counts as a separate entity in terms of spoilers.
• When writing about them, they should be hidden if they are less than a year old; after that, a short warning should suffice.
• If I'm about to discuss spoilers verbally or by chat, I ask if anyone will mind.

That's how I behave towards others. I, on the other hand, don't give a rip about spoilers, and in fact sometimes I ask for them before I commit to experiencing something; I can get excited for an event from a simple description of it, and it helps me evaluate if the twist is sheer shock value or not or if I'll appreciate the message. Any plot that can be spoiled mustn't have been that good to begin with.

Spoiler: Dumb joke unrelated to the topic

AND YET YOU WOULDN'T ASK WHAT PRONOUN THEY PREFER /brick'd

 

I still see people posting spoilers on Roosterteeth for season 11 when it ended six months ago and you have access to it on their website. *rolls eyes*

I generally ask people if they want to be spoiled. The problem for me in Red vs Blue for a long time is that I'm a sponsor... Meaning I get it two hours early, I love it, but none of my other friends have access. Luckily, I managed to find someone to talk to. Before that I had to ask my friends to block me because I would've spoiled them. lolz...

I think it depends on the person, I personally love spoilers, but I know others hate it. I know if they want to play the game and I'm telling them about it, I never really go into what happens into the game except a few things. Sometimes I go in-depth if the game is fantastic and the person really wants to know. I do warn them and ask them if they want me to continue, my friends are so used to it by this point they understand I ask. I rarely, if ever, post spoilers on a forum or a message board.

 

Whenever I write reviews, I always keep in mind the thing about spoilers. If a trailer doesn't show a major plot point to a movie, I'm not going to spoiler it in a review because that's part of the fun. To go with that, as a general rule, I don't talk about anything in detail that is past the first act (usually the first 30 minutes of the movie). That's where you get the basic plot and characters shown and done with.

Now, discussing spoilers is two sided. It's one person's job who saw the show to tell vague details as possible to what happened. Reactions are okay, as long as it doesn't go too much into detail. However, it is the job of the person who hasn't seen it to avoid it if it's really that important. If I didn't see the latest episode of Bates Motel, I'm not going to look it up on tumblr or twitter because I don't want to be spoiled.

Being spoiled does such though. I remember when Captain America: Winter Soldier was first announced and I was listening to a film podcast that had a lot of comic book fans in it. They said who the Winter Soldier's identity was. When trailers came out, they made it clear that they wanted his identity to be a surprise. It kinda sucked because I wouldn't have known if I didn't listen to that one podcast on that certain day or seen certain fan art on tumblr. I would say that when it comes to adaptations, it's polite to not go in detail about what happened.

 

I think the time for me is subjective to who I'm talking to and what we're talking about, but I usually do the time it takes for a movie to be out on DVD, new season to be a few episodes in before talking about the previous season, or a few months for a video game.

Before Captain America: The Winter Soldier came out, a non-comic-book reading friend of mine stopped me from mentioning identity of one of the bad guys. I was confused because the identity has been out for several years. Hell, even the actors, actresses, and director were open about in interviews because they knew their core audience already knew, I guess. Like I said, I consider who I'm talking to because in that case, my friend didn't read comic books/isn't involved in that culture and it was a movie that wasn't even out, although the spoiler already was.

 

it goes like this for me;

Manga chapters (weekly & biweekly) 3-4 days after release if you're not up to date with the manga don't get involved with the conversation until you are cause chances are something will get spoiled.

Monthly manga: 2 weeks is a maximum for me I don't know about anyone else but yeah.

T.V shows normally around a 4-5 days after release.

Games vary because you have to buy them sadly stuff will always get spoiled for a big title game normally a week after it's released cause if you're surrounded by people who play games normally enough something will get spoiled. ideally no one should talk about it in front of people they know haven't got the game.


Personally when somethings old enough if someones NOT up to date with it and you accidentally spoil it for them it IS their fault for not keeping on top of it I mean I know people who are still watching season 1 of walking dead and they get all antsy if you talk about it infront of them when they've had plenty enough time to watch episodes come on the early seasons aren't even that long. It really annoys me when someone blames you completely if you spoil stuff for them fair enough if it's relatively new but if they're locked in conversation or listening into conversation and they know you're talking about a series they're not up to date with they should walk away or something instead of waiting for something to get spoiled. this is the story of all my college friends spoilers everywhere.

[/rant] >:|

 

This is really a case of etiquette. The internet is mostly public or semi public spaces, so there is very little blame to be put on the person reading the spoilers. There is some, like you shouldn't go to a tumblr page about it or open something in spoiler tags, etc. But mostly it falls on the person giving the spoilers to try and talk about it in safe spaces or be courteous of others in more open spaces by asking, tagging, and so on. And with time the rules become more lax, since people who care will know already.

But it is strictly an etiquette issue. There is nothing actually wrong about walking out of a premier showing of some movie and shouting about a certain character's death. But a lot of people will hate you for it. When you make a status like "X happens to Y" it is the same thing. You know you're being a jerk. You can defend yourself with "read the books" or "watch it sooner," but the availability of information is beside the point. To even make that status you clearly intend to annoy people who don't yet know.