On Spoiling Stories
 

The imminent release of Harry Potter 7 and all the hullabaloo surrounding it makes me think about the concept of spoilers and why everyone gets so hung up over them. I know a lot of people believe that knowing the ending of a story ruins one's enjoyment of it, and to be honest, I don't really understand why. Aren't the details leading up to the story's ending just as interesting as the ending itself? Isn't this why people reread books, or watch movies more than once, or sometimes even replay adventure games?

Discuss.

I don't mind some spoilers but I do like to be surprised throughout the book. I have been avoiding any article relating to Harry Potter for quite some time because I know they're out there and I want to avoid them. :) I do reread, replay, etc. but I do that for a different purpose than when I visit a book, movie or game the first time.

I definitely think spoilers should be labeled quite prominently, so if someone doesn't want to read them, they won't.

It doesn't kill the enjoyment to me, but come on, being surprised or shocked is always nice.

Think of it as sex. You go out with someone, you want to giggity giggity her giggity goos, but you know that the date itself is a sequence of events you'll probably enjoy with her company and that the ending might be awesome or terribly grim.

I've annoyed more than a few people by reading the end of a book before the beginning or middle.

Haha, I used to do that too, when I was a kid.

I don't mind spoilers that much... seeing as how I tend to never get to read/watch/play anything until it's already old news to everyone else, it's very, very rarely I get to experience a story without having at least a vague idea of how it proceeds and/or ends.

But the few times I do get to experience something "fresh" (and manage to keep myself from peeking), I find it to be a fun experience. Even if a story holds up to repeated viewings without the surprise factor, nothing replaces that initial feeling of discovering what's going to happen as you go along, instead of already knowing about it.

Peace & Luv, Liz

I think in the case of HP, since it's so popular and knowing that it is the last of the series, spoiling the ending would be quite a disappointment for many people.

Just think, let's say in the case of the movie, "The Sixth Sense", the ending would not have had the same impact if you knew it ahead of time.

Except if you were alive at the time and had a TV, the idiots that put the trailers together gave it away.

The other parts can be good as well, but you get emotions you might not otherwise if you don't know how things turn out (had I not read Fellowship of the Rings before seeing the movie, maybe

Spoiler:

Gandalf's supposed death would have been sad instead of a "come on, get on with it, he's not dead" sort of part).

Then in repeated watchings you have in the back of your mind how good certain parts were because of the uncertainty, and that can make a movie better. Kind of like, "Oh, this part was so awesome! I almost wet myself worrying about the protagonist getting killed."

I'm mostly with Jeysie here, in that by the time I get around to something I've probably heard a lot about it. Coming to something absolutely fresh is a rare treat.

If I know I'm going to be interested in reading/watching/playing a particular title somewhere along the line, I might make an effort to avoid too much spoiler material. But if it's popular, there's no way to block it out.

There are some advantages. I'm vaguely familiar with an awful lot of movies I've never actually seen. (You name it, I probably haven't seen it.)

And I always prefer to re-read / re-watch / re-play old favourites, anyway. There's always so much more to pick up on the second, third, or fiftieth time round.

(And as far as Harry Potter goes, I couldn't possibly care less.)

Sometimes the joy of rereading (or re-viewing in the case of films) comes from seeing whether you could have spotted a twist ending coming. I can think of several films/books (the Sixth Sense included) when a second run with knowledge of the ending puts a whole new perspective on certain scenes/passages. It gives extra enjoyment (almost double value) that way.

I don't mind spoilers being available or people linking to them. I hate coming across spoilers unannounced because that takes away my choice whether to find out the surprises beforehand.

I detest spoilers because the whole time I'm playing the game, reading the book or watching the movie I'll have that knowledge in the back of my mind, completely distracting from enjoying the story as it was intended.

The films I've been most blown away by have been those I went in knowing next to nothing other than that somebody said they were good... Hero, Children of Men, Fight Club... Actually Hero I didn't even think it was going to be that good; was just expecting some neat martial arts with nice art direction.

I still enjoyed Sixth Sense despite knowing the ending, but I would have enjoyed it so much more if I had not.

With Harry Potter 5 there was a news article at some point that spoiled two key plot points and the whole time I was reading I was thinking "oh, is this where *that thing* is going to happen?". Infuriating.

Potter 6 I knew nothing and enjoyed it infinitely more.

At its core the problem is that knowing the ending colours your perception of the entire story. That's great for repeated viewing/playing, but it robs you of an entirely new experience if you go into it knowing the first time. It still entertains, but no longer has any impact.

I played Myst for the first time not that long ago. Since I've been hanging around various adventure game forums since the time when Myst was originally released I had the story spoilt. I think I'd have enjoyed the game more if that wasn't the case. Particularly as it's a game about exploration and discovery.

However...
Yes. Take any romantic comedy for example. We know that they are going to end up together, but it's still fun to watch the twists and turns of the story on its way there. And a romantic comedy (or almost any kind of story, really) that doesn't end the expected way has better have a good reason for it, or we'll be disappointed and lower our opinion of it.

Regarding HP7, I don't want to know anything about it before I read it.

Well put.

Prematurely finding out the deaths in Harry Potter 5 and 6 didn't ruin it for me, but if someone was to summarize the whole thing, then I'd be a tad pissed.

Ruined is a big word, but I would still put that in spoiler tags, although the news article was a little more specific than that.

Spoiler:

the death of a major character as well as mentioning the telepathic link between Harry and Voldemort.

Stuff I did not want to know before I read it.

Anyone spoils it on here are your dead meat.

*goes back to reading it*

Ha, some people actually, after an accidental selling of the new book two (or so) days in advance (for a couple of hours before they noticed the mistake :P), read the book in a day then traveled from Eastern Finland to Helsinki (in south of course, and it's not a short trip either) just so they could go shout spoilers to the people lining up to get it...

They travelled all that way just to do that!?
What a bunch of wankers!