Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: thoughtful
  • Music: Sara Bareilles, "Brave."

On spoilers.

So Chuck Wendig posted his thoughts on spoilers recently. I agree with many of them. There are entire media empires I have chosen to have no truck with because they were spoiled for me so thoroughly before I could start embracing them, as often through the intent of the people doing the spoiling as by accident. There is a whole subculture on Tumblr dedicated to bootlegging new movies the day they hit theaters, so that the very first spoiler-laden animated .gifs can be created. It can get really, really frustrating. While I understand the joy of having an open and enthusiastic discussion of a thing you love, part of me goes "not everyone can go to every opening night, watch every show the second it airs, read every book in ARC form three months before publication." It's just not possible, and in those cases, spoilers can steal a lot of the joy in enjoying a piece of media.

(Not for everyone, naturally. I know people who adore spoilers, and find them an exciting roadmap to what's ahead. I am just as likely to go "welp, that was the greatest hits version of the story, let's go enjoy something new.")

But saying "spoilers are bad" and "spoilers are wrong" seems very...I don't know, privileged? At least to me. I have friends who cannot watch rape. Cannot watch any threat of sexual violence. Cannot handle the use of date rape drugs or other such devices in fiction. I know people who are so severely afraid of spiders that even spiders in movies are not safe for them, or who can't deal with certain forms of bodily harm (eyeballs, sure, but no fingers, no teeth...). Most, if not all, of these people have really good reasons for their fears, and if they don't go around wearing shirts that list them off for your comprehension and enlightenment, that's because it's nobody else's business.

So they seek out spoilers. They look for them everywhere, because a little loss of surprise is worth it for the comfort of knowing a piece of media is safe. I was lucky enough to see Thor 2 early (I love you, Disneyland Annual Pass), and while I refused, for the most part, to be a source of spoilers, one person asked me a very basic "this thing will be triggery for me, does this thing happen" question, and got an answer. Because my desire not to put spoilers out into the world is not stronger than someone else's need for mental peace. I knew why she was asking. Refusing to answer at that point would have been policing someone else's choices, and saying I knew what she needed better than she did.

I will absolutely roll with "involuntary spoilers are bad": I don't want to get spoiled for everything in the universe the second I turn on my computer in the morning. I will roll with "there is a statute of limitations," and while we haven't all agreed on what it is, I stop getting grumpy after a week or so for minor things (it takes longer for big, shocking, "this changes everything" revelations). But we have to remember that for some people, spoilers are safety and self-defense. Spoilers are what makes it possible for them to enjoy media, just like everybody else.

Sometimes, providing spoilers is the only kind thing to do.
Tags: be excellent to one another, contemplation
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  • 90 comments

juglore

December 12 2013, 18:24:45 UTC 3 years ago

I have a phobia. It's better than it used to be. But it still causes sleepless nights sometimes. I hate it when someone drops a trigger into something just because they can. I had to stop playing video games. The designer's favorite trick "Oh, this is scary lets make them fight these. Now there's a whole level of these." I couldn't get my friends to vet the games for me because it wasn't memorable enough that they could tell. I'd get recommendations. "Oh this game is safe for you." It wasn't.

pusifoot

December 12 2013, 20:06:41 UTC 3 years ago

My phobia is eight-legged "angry mosquitoes" as my husband calls them. They are EVERYWHERE in gaming. I have joked that if a game designer of a fantasy game ever made a game that didn't include those creatures as a monster-type, I'd play the heck out of that game and send the designers huge tokens of thanks.

It's not happened yet though :(

archangelbeth

December 12 2013, 20:50:05 UTC 3 years ago

I was about to say that LotRO didn't have those... But they kind of do, come to think of it. I'm just not ever able to see them clearly because it's always razzinfrazzin NIGHT, it seems, when I log on. So I just see a sort of buggy blur and a nametag, and then I kill it and it vanishes. And it's got spiders. So. Many. Spiders.

EverQuest was full of giant skeeters. Ground sooooo maaaany of them...

WoW is... hm. it's got flying bugs, I know, though they mostly aren't mosquito-like. Waspoid (which may be close enough to bug you) and beetle-like. It is freakin' full of spiders, though. (And then there's the time my character came 'round a bend and there's THIS GIANT LEG TWICE AS TALL AS MY TALL CHARACTER AHHHHHH. ...I killed it, but mostly with a lot of ranged attacks and wailing, "Don't come over here! Don't touch me! Die die die die DIIIEEEE!" ...I don't like spiders. I am fortunate that I am mostly kind of okay with the pixel kinds, though I wind up going DIE DIE DIE DIE a lot at them.)

Haven't played Star Wars or Star Trek online, nor am I in the Elder Scrolls beta, so I cannot speak to those. O:(

Condolences! I wish I knew of a game that didn't go, "Yay, bugs! Everyone likes killing bugs!"

rhodielady_47

December 12 2013, 21:01:58 UTC 3 years ago

You have to wonder sometimes if the guys who are doing the writing/programming of these games are doing it with an eye to getting rid of all the squeamish girls who insist on playing with the boys.
Bugs are meant to be stomped on, not killed with swords.
:(

archangelbeth

December 12 2013, 21:37:41 UTC 3 years ago

Bugs are meant to be FIREBALLED FROM EXTREME RANGE!

Or shot from range, while your pet eats their little buggy faces.

That said, yeah, sometimes I do wonder about the "gross-out" factor coming into play. O:p

rhodielady_47

December 12 2013, 22:01:01 UTC 3 years ago

Problem is, guys have stuff they're squeamish about too.
Heheheheheee...
:)

Deleted comment

rhodielady_47

December 13 2013, 02:13:14 UTC 3 years ago

Most guys are very squeamish about blood of any sort.
Goodness knows the number of times I've had to render first aid while several guys stood around and wrung their hands and squawked about their heads off.
I've also seen guys that couldn't cut the head off a chicken much less clean the carcass and then cook it....and we're talking about guys who love their steak too!
:\

dragoness_e

December 13 2013, 04:14:05 UTC 3 years ago

I grew up cleaning fish--Mom's policy was "You catch 'em, you clean 'em, and I'll cook them." I liked her pan-fried fish, so I learned how to clean my own catch as soon as Dad would trust me with a sharp knife.

After you've gutted a zillion fish every summer for years, dissecting frogs in high school biology class is nothing. Amazing how many suburban guys and girls get all squeamish over that, though.

rhodielady_47

December 14 2013, 01:46:29 UTC 3 years ago

My family are all country people. I saw chickens killed, cleaned and cooked for supper, as well as saw deer and goats butchered for meat. I also thought the frogs were nothing. I hated the chemical stink worse than working on the frogs.
Freshly caught and cooked fish are wonderful.
:)