#conversation around spoilers

[redstarfish-art]

Yes to all of the above for sure.

I have had SO many people PURPOSELY spoil things for me after I actively told them I hate it because they find it funny (and also as mild, control thing).

People who like spoiling things for others already try to defend themselves by pretending this is not a big deal. And I am sure those people will be weaponising the findings of this study. The article title already begins that process (although seemingly more as a clickbait thing).

The reality is, spoilers CAN be enjoyable to some people. This is not news.

These people have always existed and some of them have recently felt a pressure that they could not express that they like spoilers (an unfortunate side effect of the collective pushing back against people who go around spoiling things for people on purpose).

People who like spoilers have also expressed frustration at not being allowed to talk about the series they've recently consumed to people who have yet consumed it. This is because they like spoilers and they want to talk about a piece of media they've recently watched. Some of this group are respectful and find other people to talk to, while some of this group will be taking this study and deciding that they have scientific backing to say whatever they want and anyone who doesn't let them do that is oppressing them.

Like most things, it is important to check.

If you've never felt any big fear of hearing spoilers, maybe you can try reading spoilers before watching a show to find out if you are the type that enjoys spoilers or if you are the type that hates spoilers (and some people will be a mix of the two depending on the media in question).

However, if you have friends who actively hate spoilers, respect their choices. Respect their needs. This one study about a very specific situation (in which people give consent to be given spoilers before consuming a piece of media) is not applicable to a huge range of real life situations.

And finally, there's a HUGE difference between choosing to read spoilers for yourself, and being forcibly told spoilers against your will.

The thing about spoilers is, I don’t actually think they spoil things for me. That momentary feeling of surprise when the big reveal happens is fun, sure, and I like trying to figure out a mystery on my own.

But I also just really love foreshadowing? Knowing what’s coming up lets me look for all the signs that the creator is laying out for me. It’s a different kind of puzzle, and one that I get just as much satisfaction out of, if not more.

If I enjoy a story, I’ll still enjoy it even if I know how it ends. The most lasting stories we have, as humans, have been spoiled for all of us before we even hear them. Famous tales become a shorthand that we use in every day life. Learning the story of the Trojan Horse actually became more interesting as a result of understanding the phrase first.

There was a time in my life when I didn’t understand people who would flip to the back of a book to read the last page before they started the story, but I think I get it now. There’s a comfort in knowing how things end and an enjoyment in taking the journey regardless.

[lucabyte]

i feel like people are sleeping on the occam's razor situation of how buckwild it is to outright accuse a guy of being a clone of your friend even if you DO have a lot of circumstantial evidence. there's other options is what im saying. they could just be like. a guy. that's a sensible deduction. you should explore that deduction. ignore my shirt that reads I <3 RED HERRINGS.

i still think odile has the correct theory on lock but she's smart enough to know it needs like... a real smoking gun to be able to bring it up without sounding insane.

anyway. (mirabelle voice) i know its rude to speculate but has anyone else noticed the grieving? they seem to be grieving. does anyone have any thoughts on the grieving? i have some thoughts on the grieving.

[thebookworm0001]

I think solas’s body language in his atonement ending is just. good lord that man is tired of making world-altering decisions that hurt people.

you hand him the dagger after telling him that what he’s doing won’t do what he wants it to and the way he’s only barely holding it

It’s balanced on the tips of his fingers and once he holds it more firmly, it’s still such a loose grip and he’s tapping the blade in a way where you can see him considering what rook is saying

And then after he’s freed of mythal’s bonds - he looks back at the tears in the world and his eyes clear and there is no hesitation in how he draws that blade across his palm. He sees a way forward that doesn’t require him to doom thousands more to death and wastes no time choosing that other, better way.

He’s never wanted to do this. He’s never wanted the blood of yet another world on his hands. And the moment he’s free to find a better way, the only blood he spills is his own

[jjrachj]

he not kno ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[egophiliac]

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE KNIGHT OF DAWN SPIRIT IS STUCK IN A RING

Please where does it say that I must know!!!!!!!

calling him "stuck" was mostly a joke (and I don't think he's really a floating little ghostie or anything, more like...just some kind of remnant?) but when he showed up at the end of chapter 5, I read it as his spirit being in/attached somehow to the ring, and I think the implication was meant to be that he (or what was left of him) was the one guiding Silver through Lilia's memories. that may be leaning a little too hard into my personal interpretation, but that's what I thought we were supposed to get out of it! 🤷

(now watch as they turn directly to the camera in the next update to explain that I've misunderstood everything and the ring is really a tiny little robot that we all must shrink down into to pilot) (which would actually be amazing, can we have that please)

[fiona-fififi]

Maddie: 🤨🤔 "mhmm, could be very much the point"..."wow"..."Eddie's friend??"..."I just think that maybe you're not sure of your own feelings, yet, and if there's something that you need to tell Eddie, you will. Just, in your own time."

Evan Buckley, your sister has your number and she is going to gloat SO hard when you finally get your shit together and lock Eddie down.

[wardensantoineandevka]

y'know, most of us are saying this or that about "Bells Hells choosing to release Predathos to remove the gods from Exandria," but — and admittedly my memory might be shaky on this one due to East Coast time — Bells Hells hasn't even gotten that far yet, as far as I remember

like, at minimum it seems that people are FEELING that the Hells haven't even made a decision about whether they even want to let Predathos out or not, or what they want to do about the gods. they were in the process of trying to ask Predathos what it wanted to do and whether it was possible to convince it to go back where it came from without bothering anyone at all. the current situation is more at "Predathos is trying to grab you and use you as a host, what are you doing" without making a clear choice about the implications of the results of resisting or not resisting

we're still in a bit of a not having made a choice yet either way about Predathos's intent to escape or what that would mean for the gods or the state of Exandria, we're not even at the moment of unfolding in text whether Imogen intends for this to be a way to control Predathos to guide it toward another end, whether she is making this as an active choice to try to contain it and prevent it from escaping, whether she is making this as an active choice to aid it, whether she is simply giving in as a resignation to what she feels is inevitable fate

a choice has been made to not resist being taken up by Predathos, but there... hasn't been a clear choice at all so far about the actual narrative question of what to do with Predathos and the gods, like, that's still something that remains undecided on by the party, they hadn't even made a decision yet when the reaching and grabbing happened, so like, yeah

[thevalleyisjolly]

It's a minor detail but I'm so emotional over Doctor Who making the universal human language in the future based on Cantonese.

[jacketpotatoo]

I'm stealing this from my lit teacher but he posed that something certain characters in arcane s2 missed were 'Zuko Alone' moments. Moments where characters took an extended amount of time to introspect, face the consequences of their actions, and connect with the wider world. This, to me, is why Caitlyn's arc wasn't as effective as it could've been. After a switch-up, after a big 180 like hers, it is simply necessary to track the progression of her arc. It's easy to say "In hating you, I've hated myself" and "no amount of good deeds can undo our crimes" but when you don't see her face the Zaunites or acknowledge the class-privileges she exploited, it all rings a little hollow. Arcane usually does a good job of tying the personal with the political and I think that's hidden in Cait's arc. She works as a character when you're understanding her actions in relation to her love for Vi and forgiveness of Jinx. She doesn't if you think of it on a wider socio-political scale. It's just a little odd when the show is such an arbiter of 'show don't tell'. That line has to do alot of heavy lifting. Alas, what time restraints does to an arc.

[barschter000]

broke: Due to his attractiveness, Barok has slept with countless (wo)men.

woke: Despite his attractiveness, Barok is a virgin.

Bespoke: Because of entirely different factors, Barok does not know what sex is.

[chaosgenasi]

I haven't opened up in a while. This group is strange that way. Didn't go well last time, we'll see how it goes this time. Although, y'know, may not matter in a couple weeks. Maybe in these last couple weeks, we can both work on affording ourselves a little bit of forgiveness.

[autumnoakes]

i'm having trouble forming this thought into words but there's something about melinoë being raised the way that she was and being taught to think the way that she does to the point of not being able to think any other way. it's not naivety and it very much reminds me of how prejudices get passed from parent to child. i keep seeing these statements coming from the olympians saying that the old golden age was a farce and that chronos is manipulating the humans into following him (note that we don't have any living human perspective on what's happening, so we don't really know how far chronos' reach has spread. all we have to go on is what's happening in the realms of the gods and in ephyra). it's all being perpetuated by gods that melinoë has been raised to trust and believe in. i think she could be nearing a tipping point as the plot progresses, though. like i said, i don't think there's necessarily a "good" or "bad" side here, only the side that melinoë/the player is on and the side that chronos is on (plus many of the NPCs that we meet who are generally uninvolved in the whole mess). but there's also a lot that we're missing simply because melinoë is unaware of it.

[caeslxys]

I’ve mentioned this elsewhere but it feels relevant again in light of the most recent episode. Something that’s really fascinating to me about Orym’s grief in comparison to the rest of the hells’ grief is that his is the youngest/most fresh and because of that tends to be the most volatile when it is triggered (aside from FCG, who was two and obviously The Most volatile when triggered.)

As in: prior to the attack on Zephrah, Orym was leading a normal, happy, casual life! with family who loved him and still do! Grief was something that was inflicted upon him via Ludinus’ machinations, whereas with characters like Imogen or Ashton, grief has been the background tapestry of their entire lives. And I think that shows in how the rest of them are largely able to, if not see past completely (Imogen/Laudna/Chetney) then at least temper/direct their vitriol or grief (Ashton/Fearne/Chetney again) to where it is most effective. (There is a glaring reason, for example, that Imogen scolded Orym for the way he reacted to Liliana and not Ashton. Because Ashton’s anger was directed in a way that was ultimately protective of Imogen—most effective—and Orym’s was founded solely in his personal grief.)

He wants Imogen to have her mom and he wants Lilliana to be salvageable for Imogen because he loves Imogen. But his love for the people in his present actively and consistently tend to conflict with the love he has for the people in his past. They are in a constant battle and Orym—he cannot fathom losing either of them.

(Or, to that point, recognize that allowing empathy to take root in him for the enemy isn't losing one of them.)

It is deeply poignant, then, that Orym’s grief is symbolized by both a sword and shield. It is something he wields as a blade when he feels his philosophy being threatened by certain conversational threads (as he believes it is one of the only things he has left of Will and Derrig, and is therefore desperately clinging onto with both bloody hands even if it makes him, occasionally, a hypocrite), but also something he can use in defense of the people he presently loves—if that provocative, blade-grief side of him does not push them—or himself—away first.

(it won’t—he is as loved by the hells as he loves them. he just needs to—as laudna so beautifully said—say and hear it more often.)

[lordsovorn]

A few interesting details about Turbo Granny I've only noticed when they have been adapted into anime (some light spoilers, I guess):

Despite a minute later calling Aira's death not surprising and every effort to revive her useless - in a very blunt, cold manner at that - she is the one that brought it up in the first place as something more important than the ball. If it was so expected and now not worth the effort, you'd think it wouldn't distract her from "practical concerns" that much.

She does actually call an ambulance. With her little doll paws.

None of that is earth-shattering in any way, but it does flesh out the kind of person she is - someone who cares (we know she cares a lot), but can't express it sincerely at all. Who then talks rudely, pretends to be cool-headed and heartless, and dunks on others for caring.

And someone who is so profoundly scared of being useless and abandoned, of not doing or not being enough, she takes every opportunity to do whatever little things she can. She never actually stops helping them out despite the incessant grumbling and despite no one really expecting anything from her. And then she narrows her eyes and strikes a cool pose whenever she is helpful.

[utilitycaster]

The thing about the argument that the sword makes Laudna uncomfortable is that it's valid if it does, but if you've been in any sort of organization that attempts to have an emotionally open dialogue in making decisions, and especially if you've been in any sort of leadership position within it, you will almost certainly encounter people who suddenly become uncomfortable when, as the meme goes, we are not about them. You encounter people who suddenly express discomfort - which should ideally be brought up early in the conversation since that alone may be a reason to blackball a decision - when multiple other arguments haven't worked (and during the ensuing argument this episode, you can easily watch Orym stick to the same exact story he's been saying for 50+ episodes and that he wants to reclaim this sword and use it to kill Ludinus while Laudna throws out multiple arguments, switching from one to the other as the rest of the party slowly realizes the sword isn't cursed and that this is Delilah's influence). You see this in internet spaces as well; people who do not draw a line between "trigger" and "squick" or "discomfort" and "dislike" even though that line very much exists.

Obviously you do have to still listen, because there are plenty of valid reasons to change a decision because someone involved is uncomfortable; but even a legitimately uncomfortable person does not automatically outweigh the needs of everyone else and you cannot please everyone at once. These decisions must be made contextually because otherwise "I'm uncomfortable with this" becomes a magic Uno Reverse card to hold the group decisions hostage. It's a factor, but ultimately, even if Delilah were in no way involved, if Laudna's the only person uncomfortable and this also means a lot to Orym, the solution is likely going to be either "keep it out of sight" or "give it to a member of the Accord". And yeah, as Imogen points out, if Laudna's genuinely uncomfortable with Orym having a sword with a dark history, absorbing it herself really undercuts that point.

[d1shfandomz]

soukoku are equally obsessed with each other but the difference is that one of them knows it and one of them isn’t aware of it in the least