Do You Really Care If You Read A Spoiler?

People seem to really care about spoilers. If one is shared with someone by accident, they are usually infuriated and feel the text has lost its intrigue, especially if it was something they were planning on reading or watching. I seem to have a completely different perspective on hearing spoilers, but it changes according to whether it is a book, film or television show. And when someone offers up a spoiler to me, I will greedily take it. Do I have any patience? No, I do not.

Spoilers in Books

For me, I often do not care if I purposefully or accidentally find out about a spoiler from a book. If I am reading a book that I am really enjoying, and it contains a sort of mystery, I will sometimes times flick through the pages to find out what it is before reaching it naturally. This is not always the case, though, as more often than not I will find out what the mystery is in my own time. But when I do desperately search the written words to find out what the Big Reveal is, it is usually because I am just really invested in the story. If I find out the spoiler on my own, the reason is usually that I just love the novel so much that I want to know what happens immediately.

Spoilers in Film

If it is for a film, my opinions are slightly different, but also very similar. I love being surprised, but if I want to know the outcome of a film, I will not be able to stop myself from getting spoiled and reading the plot on Wikipedia. It is the best way of finding where the story goes and what happens to the characters in the end. Even if I don’t want to be spoiled and instead want the shock of the plot twist, I will be so persistent on ruining my privilege of not knowing that I subconsciously look for the twist without agreeing to it first. And then I realise that I have ruined the movie for myself.

The shock and surprise of a plot twist is undoubtedly better than searching for it before it happens. The most notable plot twist that I watched and did not know beforehand was the one in Gone Girl (2014). I watched the film before reading the book, and I found the twist to be very unexpected, likely because I was not prepared for it like I would be if I had spoiled the ending.

Gone Girl (2014)

Spoilers in Television

I don’t care when it comes to television. Give me all the spoilers I can get, I won’t care. I’m sure I’ll watch the show anyway. One time that I actually did hold off and wait for the build-up was the ‘A’ reveal in Pretty Little Liars. The show aired a few hours before I could watch it, so I could have easily looked on Twitter to see who ‘A’ was. Thankfully, I waited it out, and was thoroughly surprised! I was really hoping it would be Aria, but sadly it wasn’t (don’t worry, that’s not a spoiler if you haven’t watched it). I wonder if I will be able to hold out for the ‘AD’ reveal in a few months. I am sure I will, I hardly care about that show anymore. Otherwise, television doesn’t effect me the way that film does, and that could be because I don’t really care that much about television.

Moments before ‘A’ is revealed.

When Someone Offers a Spoiler

When someone offers a spoiler, I will usually take it. If I am reading a review on Goodreads and there is a section that reads spoiler, I will click on it. The temptation is too hard to resist. If someone is talking about a book or television show that they have recently read or seen, I will want to know what happens, even if they don’t offer to tell me.

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• So I don’t really care if I read a spoiler… Do you?