When has a spoiler helped ruin something for you?

I will start this off with the memory that two weeks before the release of the final Harry Potter book, some ass posted a YouTube video which showed who died in the book, and on what page. I saw the first few names before realizing what it was, and turning it off.

I have a friend who has the need to whisper to my ear every next scene in any movie/video they have already watched and are now viewing it with me again (I view the things for the first time). Watching anything with them is a pain.

Once, I brought my brother with me to the bookstore. I caught him slipping a piece of paper saying “SNAPE KILLS DUMBLEDORE” into the front cover of the relevant Harry Potter book.

He got a serious thump upside the head.

That is not the sort of thing I put up with.

Spoilers never ruin anything. For me.
In fact, they have the opposite effect.

By the way, in the next Superman Movie, Superman and Batman fight each other, and then they team up, together with Wonderwoman, to fight a reanimated Zod who has been turned into Doomsday.
That is the whole movie. And that was the last trailer.

I remember a mate telling me Russell Crowe dies at the end of Gladiator, I was not entertained.
Until I twatted him in the nuts with a bag of spuds I happened to be carrying at the time.

I was in Internet blackout so I somehow got to see it spoiler free. Spoilers are not going to ruin this one for the record.

I saw a spoiler in the comment section of an unrelated news post. As if someone just wanted to spoilt for unsuspecting news junkies!

My husband and I did the Potter series as read-alouds. At a pace of about 30 pages per week, it took months to read the later and longer books. I went around with my hands (figuratively) over my ears for six months so nothing would spoil the outcome. Made it, too. I consider that something of a feat.

However, just a few months ago someone posted an offhand comment on a book I was about to read—it happened to be a 1957 novel by Nevil Shute—and the giveaway did kill the suspense.

Professional reviewers publish their comments about books and movies without spoilers, but amateurs give away plots all the time, sometimes deliberately and sometimes just thoughtlessly. I’m pretty wary about seeing readers’ comments on books before I read them just for that reason.

I have an old work-friend that when she picks up any book- she reads the end first! It drives me crazy! I told her that I was sending Senator McCarthy her name on a slip of paper for Un-American activity.
It has gotten to the point where when I plan to read the same book, if she goes to ruin it by spilling what happens, I cover my ears and start La-La-La-ing.
I have thought of giving her a book as a present with the last two chapters missing!

The trailer for Titanic where they showed the ship sinking.

And to be honest, I need spoilers to decide wether or not a movie is even worth seeing.

When is a spoiler a spoiler?

In a lot of cases, I read the book before I see the movie. So I have a pretty fair idea of what’s going to happen at the end, even though I may not have a 100% knowledge of exactly how they’re going to get there.

For example, I read the book The Martian just after it came out a couple of years ago, Loved it, so when the movie came out, I saw it – opening day. I knew what was going to happen at the end – but it was still great.

Same with Les Miserables. Same with Hunt for Red October.

I guess that to answer your question, “it really doesn’t matter that much to me”:

@msh – I, too, have a friend who reads the end first, so she can decide whether she wants to see how it happens. She lives in kind of an alternate universe where parents all love their children and nothing bad ever happens, and doesn’t want that messed up for her, even in fiction.

She stopped watching Grey’s Anatomy when the plane crashed because it was too sad.

::shrug::

I think there has to be some kind of statute of limitations on spoilers. I remember people complaining about others mentioning Thorin’s death at the end of The Hobbit before the third film came out.

Honestly, you’ve had since 1937 to pick up a book. Deal with it.

DARTH VADER KILLS OBI-WAN!!!

My Mom also used to read the end of books also. I never understood why.

@Jeruba: Which Neville Shute? He’s one of my most faves ever! I just started a reread of Trustee From The Toolroom.

@canidmajor, that one happened to be On the Beach. I’ve read six of them during the past year and expect to round up some more in 2016. Trustee from the Toolroom was my first.

@Jeruba: check your Kindle listings. I found a bunch for my nook very low priced. I was elated!

@canidmajor, thanks, I’ll remember that, but first I’ll try the library. I greatly prefer the old, much-read original hardcovers if I can get them.

@Jeruba, oh, I hope you can! My library is woefully under stocked, I get frustrated.

@canidmajor, my library system is tied into the library of a state university, and there are old copies of many classics. The Scott novels belong to a hardcover set published in the 1930s, when proofreaders still knew their business, and they are a joy to read.