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Can You Enjoy a Spoilt Story?

Mercedes

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Simple question! So if it's a book, game, TV, movie or whatever; if someone spoils the story for you, can you then continue to enjoy it? Or is it then ruined for you and you can't enjoy it anymore?
 

CynicalSquid

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Spoilers don't matter to me. In my honest opinion. it's more about the journey, not the end.

I knew how Harry Potter ended as a series while I was reading the 5th book, and I knew how A Link Between Worlds ended the day it came out, yet I still enjoyed them despite the endings and plot twist being spoiled.
 

Firice da Vinci

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It is certainly possible. For example, I saw the CGI ending of Final Fantasy: Crisis Core before I even knew what it was. I never play Final fantasy VII either, so I reallydidn't know what was going to happen. My memory just shows me watching the ending on YouTube and nothing more. Not a single reaction or emotion. Maybe a year or two later, something urged me to watch all the cutscenes from CC, even though I already knew the ending.

After I watched everything, I cried for maybe an hour. Seeing the buildup of the story, all the character development, and hearing the befitting soundtrack, my take on the final moment was a completely new experience

#DemFeelsTho
 

Azure Sage

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I really hate to be spoiled, but that doesn't mean I won't be able to enjoy the story anymore. I'll sometimes find the silver lining in being spoiled; I'll think about the various things that could happen to lead up to that point, like "Wow, I wonder what happened to lead to that?". Even so, knowing what will happen still puts a bit of a damper on my excitement. If it can be avoided, I'd greatly prefer to not be spoiled.
 

misskitten

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I absolutely can, and I sometimes seek out the spoilers myself. If someone spoils me without my permission it's definitely annoying, but ultimately, since I can easily enjoy rewatching, re-reading and replaying something, getting spoiled the first time doesn't necessarily ruin the experience for me.
 
If someone spoils something for me, it definitely takes away from the experience making me less anxious to discover the story prior to that point. If a character dies or something else happens to remove them from the story, I'm more dismissive of them, for example.

It's not a big deal if I spoil something for myself, however, since it was a conscious decision on my part.
 

Sydney

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It really depends -- I've spoiled things for myself before, and I've been displeased with my choice to have it spoiled (i.e. Castle season 5 finale). There are times when I want to quickly finish a series, so I'll go ahead and spoil the ending for myself (i.e. Highschool of the Dead). I've also had events/developments spoiled for me, which sucks sometimes (i.e. the ending to TFIOS), but other times I won't care (i.e. everything from the AoT/SnK manga).

It varies, but I usually try to refrain from viewing spoilers.
 

BoxTar

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...kind of, it depends on the type of spoiler. I really hated knowing who Impa was in SS...it kind of ruined that plot point for me, but knowing all along kind of made me enjoy and really be fascinated with the character throughout, so I suppose it wasn't a completely terrible thing

But I hate it when people spoil endings to anything. Especially if there is a big twist or something super important that changes everything at the end. It ruins my personal experience just a bit, but it doesn't completely ruin the movie/game/tv show for me, because I am still able to enjoy it for its aesthetics, plot, characters, music, etc. If all it had going for it was that one thing that shocks everyone, then it really had no sort of substance, and probably wouldn't have been a very enjoyable experience otherwise.
 

Lord Vain

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Well, when I'm interested in something I tend to look into it as much as I can before it's release lol, and as such intentionally spoil myself about a lot of stuff. So, yeah I'd say that it doesn't change anything to me, I'm likely to still enjoy it just as much.
 

Heroine of Time

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Nothing's better than experiencing a plot twist you never saw coming, so I try to avoid spoilers. But I can still enjoy a story that's been spoiled. That's the reason I replay games -- I love experiencing their stories again. And even when I do get a major spoiler for something, I manage to justify continuing by saying that I still don't know HOW or WHY that thing happens.
 

Beeker

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Usually I'm pretty loose on spoilers, unless it is a series I follow/enjoy closely, like Zelda. If it's something I'm not really gonna watch, read or play, sure, I'll spoil away. Even with a spoiled story, it won't ruin it entirely for me. There are a few times I wish I didn't look at spoilers though. Right now I'm playing/finishing Persona 3. The way I found this game was by watching a playthrough of it online. Now that I'm playing through and experiencing the story myself, I kinda wish I didn't( or at least have that amnesia device from Men in Black :bleh:). It still gives strong feels whenever certain plot points happen, but I think they would have been a better experience blind.
 

Vanessa28

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Yes I can but it does take away a bit of the fun or excitement for me. I remember when ALBW was released Termy was mad when he found out who Yuga would become in ALBW and in his anger he posted it on skype and accidentally ruined the plot for me while I was in the middle of my first gameplay :lol:
 
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After I watched everything, I cried for maybe an hour. Seeing the buildup of the story, all the character development, and hearing the befitting soundtrack, my take on the final moment was a completely new experience

#DemFeelsTho

I do believe the potency of that ending scene is so strong BECAUSE it was "spoiled" for us. Those who played FFVII knew very well how it was going to turn out for Zack, and that just made the entire game that much more emotional; Zack goes through all these trials, all these battles, and all this character development, and we're already fully aware of how his story ends. It just makes it that much more tragic.

Anyway, I do find myself getting less enjoyment from a particular media form if I already know all the twists and turns of it. There have been several times where I accidentally spoiled something, and I downright HATED myself for doing so. The two that stick out to me the most is spoiling the identity of the Black Knight from Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn, and spoiling the events of the "Red Wedding" from Game of Thrones well before the HBO adaptation was even shooting season 2. I think both of those events would have been far better if I had gone in blind to them.
 

Ocarina_Player

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For the most part, no it doesn't ruin the story for me. Unless the spoiler reveals that the story will go in a direction I won't like or the only thing the story had going for it was the plot twist, but for the most part I care more about how the plot unfolds, not where it ends up.
 

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