With Avengers: Endgame and the new season of Game of Thrones airing within the last couple of weeks, my social media has been flooded with posts begging others not to spoil either of them.
While a majority of the population attended screenings during opening weekend or watched the new episode, some couldn’t enjoy them right away and had to wait for whatever reason.
As a result, there was a bombardment of people saying, ‘whoever ruins it for is getting blocked’ or ‘if someone posts a spoiler, I’m not in control of my actions.’
Robynne Henry The Henry Hype
I even heard of one person having a book thrown at them at work warning them not to ruin Avengers. Even when someone I know posted a line out of context, that would make no sense to someone who hadn’t seen the movie, there was a comment left, in all caps, telling them not to ruin it for people who hadn’t been able to watch the movie yet.
As someone who prefers hearing plot twists before I see something I’m really looking forward to, I normally enjoy seeing what comes out after a movie or show premier. I try to use the hints as a way of guessing the plot before I sit down to enjoy it.
It’s one of the main reasons why I don’t understand when people get upset if they hear a spoiler, or come across one online. It’s just meant to entertain us and really has no effect on our actual lives.For me, seeing all the posts about Avengers had me excited to go and see it during opening weekend. I crowded into the theatre in Cold Lake with all the other fans and went through the rollercoaster ride that was Endgame. I enjoyed making the connections with the information I’d gathered before watching the movie, and it helped make it not seem like I’d spent three hours in a dark room.
When Monday rolled around, the posts on social media started to get out of hand with people demanding others not spoil either Game of Thrones or Endgame.
It also made me wonder why, if it was so important to people, why they wouldn’t just avoid being online altogether until they could watch whatever they were worried about to avoid reading posts?
At the end of the day, there’s a lot more important things to worry about than if someone’s going to ruin a movie or television show for you. Plus, when you think back on it, you probably won’t even remember if it was ruined or not. You’ll just recall if you enjoyed it, and how much hype was surrounding it being released.
