Spoilers? Do they really ruin a good story?

[Melimatters]

I have been thinking of this for some time, and I put some basic thoughts about it on my journal here, but not sure if people actually read those, I thought I would expand here and see what people think.

Bit of backstory first, sorry but it really does help, I deal with some severe mental illness and because of that I often find that even media can cause some serious anxiety. I have been dealing with a lot of this recently so when I started bingeing some romantic Anime recently, I decided to go look at spoilers for the second half as it had been getting pretty intense, Golden Time for anyone interested.

What I really realized was that even with the spoilers I still loved the show, the story was still really REALLY well told, and the emotional moments still hit nicely but without the overwhelming anxiety I deal with.

So, I guess what I am asking is if this is just me? Am I the only one that feels this way? Or do others see spoilers the same?



Meli

[Zarxrax]

I have never really cared about spoilers unless its a really key moment of the story that DEMANDS that you be surprised by it. Most of the time, I find a good story is about the journey to the end, not necessarily the ending itself. I've always kind of been perplexed that some people hate spoilers so much, but everyone is different, and has different perspectives on things. Heck, I remember back in the day when anime was really difficult to obtain, I would read summaries of what happens and just imagine how it would play out in my head. It would make me even MORE excited to watch the real thing and experience it first hand.

[Kireblue]

I have never really cared about spoilers unless its a really key moment of the story that DEMANDS that you be surprised by it.

I pretty much feel the same. AMVs are amazing in the sense that they're able to condense entire arcs into 3-4 minute videos, but at the same time, it's a much different experience than spending hours watching those events happen throughout multiple episodes. And so even when you're seen the events in an AMV, they oftentimes feel completely new when you watch them with the added context that couldn't possibly fit into a short video. And most of the time, the story in AMVs is altered to fit the context of the song, so seeing the "true" plotline revealed after watching an AMV can have it's own reward.

The only time I've been mad about being spoiled from an AMV is when this AMV played at Otakon 2013 (August 9-11, 2013). The Danganronpa anime had just started airing a month prior (premiered July 4, 2013), and so at the time of the convention, anime-only watchers were only on episode 6 out of 13. So even though I saw that a Danganronpa AMV was on the contest ballot, I had assumed that I was fine since I had watched all of the currently released episodes. In hindsight, I should have realized that something was strange since Otakon's AMV contest deadline was June 17th that year (2 weeks before the anime even premiered).

So obviously, the editor had used the video game series (which I didn't even know existed at the time). I was completely flabbergasted when the video almost immediately revealed that not only was Junko (a seemingly background character thought to have died in the first episode) still alive, but also the mastermind behind everything. I had actually seen multiple cosplays of her that entire weekend and was wondering why so many people were cosplaying a character that died after having 2 lines, but the truth didn't hit me until the moment I saw the AMV . But either way, I still enjoyed the show, so I guess no real harm done.

[Kireblue]

I guess I should also add that I've been actively avoiding watching Kingdom Hearts AMVs for the past 2 years because I don't want to get spoiled on the 3rd game before I find time to finally beat it. So I think that if it's something you're already invested in, you'd want to avoid spoilers. But if it's something that you're experiencing brand new for the first time, seeing spoilers in an AMV doesn't really matter that much. And you always have the option to simply not watch the video.

I feel like I tried to tap into this sentiment when I made my Dopamine AMV a few years ago. I know that Happy Sugar Life is an anime that a lot of people may have heard about, but didn't actually watch. And so I wanted to make a video that showed the biggest plot points in the series and make people interested in checking it out. I also wanted to catch audiences completely off guard in a way that would be impossible if the show had managed to become more mainstream. I've never actually heard anyone complain about being spoiled by my video, and people mostly just say that it made them interested in it. So I think I accomplished my goal